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FIRST 
PRINCIPLES 




M^ M. DAVIS, A.M. 

Pastor Central Christian Church, Dallas, Texas 

AUTHOR OF "change OF HEART," "QUEEN ESTHER," "ELIJAH* 




cincinnati: 
The Standard Publishing Company 

Publishers of Christian Literature 




JJ 



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^gaw::-2r»» iiw iiw» ' ii ii r i m .M .i i>.'-8ea 

LiBRMfTV of CONGRESS 
Two CoBles Received 

AUG 3 1904 

Cooypfeht Entry 

CLASS ^ XXc. No. 

COPY B 



Copyright, 1904, by 
The Standard Publishing Company 



TO 



W. M. PECK, Jr. 



PREFACE 

In writing the pages which follow I have 
kept constantly in mind an honest heart in 
search of the way of salvation. He first in- 
quires as to God; then as to the Bible; after 
which' he makes a special study of the New 
Testament, which he finds perfectly adapted 
to all his spiritual wants, and in which he is 
brought face to face with Jesus of Nazareth 
as the great Miracle Worker, the Marvelous 
Teacher, the Sinless Character, and the Risen 
King, victorious over Death and the Grave. 
Sitting at His feet, he learns how to be saved, 
enters the church and consecrates his life to 
the blessed service of his Savior. May his wise 
example be followed by many of my readers. 

Author. 

Dallas, Texas, Dec. 5, 1903. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. page 

Is There a God? 9 

Chapter II. 

Did the Bible Come from God? 23 

Chapter III. 

How to Study the New Testament 35 

Chapter IV. 

The Divinity of Christ Seen in His Wisdom . . 47 

Chapter V. 

The Divinity of Christ Seen in His Purity 59 

Chapter VI, 

The Divinity of Christ Seen in His Resurrection. . 71 

Chapter VII. 

Faith 85 

Chapter VIII. 

Repentance 97 

Chapter IX. 

Conversion 109 

Chapter X. 

Change of Heart 121 

Chapter XI. 

The Confession 133 

7 



8 CONTENTS 

Chapter XII. 

The Action of Baptism 146 

Chapter XIII. 

The Design of Baptism 159 

Chapter XIV. 

The Subjects of Baptism 170 

Chapter XV. 

Evidence of Pardon 182 

Chapter XVI. 

The True Church 195 

Chapter XVII. 

Christian Living 206 



First Principles 



CHAPTER I. 

IS THERE A GOD? 

The first questions in the heart of a devout 
searcher after truth are those concerning God. 
Is there a God? If so, can I know him? A 
large volume might well be written in answer to 
these questions; and yet a helpful answer may 
be given in much smaller compass. In fact, 
the answer must be condensed and simplified, 
or it will not reach the masses. They have no 
time to read large and elaborate books. They 
are in the midst of the battle of life, and it is not 
an easy struggle. The wolf is at the door, and 
must be driven away,' or the children will starve. 
They are willing and anxious to hear, and their 
hungry souls are dying for want of knowledge; 
but if they are to hear, the answer must be 
simple and brief. 

But these people must not expect an abso- 
lutely perfect answer. We know nothing with 

9 



10 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

absolute perfection. We only know ourselves 
and others in part, and yet this partial knowledge 
is ample for present purposes. And if we can- 
not fully comprehend ourselves, how can we 
hope to comprehend God? Paul speaks of '■' that 
which may be known of God'' (Rom. i. 19), im- 
plying that there w^as something which could 
not be known. The finite cannot fully com- 
prehend the Infinite. The ocean cannot be 
emptied into a tea-cup. If so, it would not be 
an ocean. The tea-cup may be filled from the 
ocean, but when filled it can contain no more 
until it is enlarged. And so we may now know 
God sufficiently well to believe in him, to love 
him, and to serve him, but we must not expect 
to know him in his fullness. In the sweet by 
and by we shall know him as he is, but now 
we can only know him as we are. ''When I was 
a child I spake as a child, I understood as a 
child, I thought as a child; but when I became 
a man I put away childish things. Now^ w^e see 
through a glass darkly, but then face to face; 
now I know in part, but then shall I know even 
as also I am known" (I. Cor. xiii. 11, 12). 

Our answer to these questions is twofold : the 
argument from without and the argument from 
within. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 11 

ARGUMENT FROM WITHOUT. 

1. Cause and effect. Every effect must not only 
have a cause, but it must have an adequate cause. 
This is an axiom. The simple statement car- 
ries conviction to all. A caravan was crossing 
a desert. An early riser reported that a camel 
had been walking about the tent during the 
night. He was asked how he knew it, and he 
pointed to the tracks in the sand, saying that 
nothing but a camel made such tracks. And 
when we look about us, we see the tracks of 
Jehovah. AVe see them in the hills and moun- 
tains ; in the valleys and plains ; in the rivers and 
oceans ; in the flowers and trees ; in the birds and 
fishes; in the sun, moon and stars; in the cov- 
enant of the day and night; in the coming and 
going of the seasons; and, most of all, in man 
himself. With all his splendid achievements — 
and they are splendid — man has not been able 
to make things like these. His mountains are 
mole-hills ; his rivers are small canals ; his oceans 
are toy lakes; his flowers are without life or 
fragrance, and his lights are flickering tapers. 
Napoleon, not only the greatest soldier of his 
age, but also one of the world's wisest philoso- 
phers, with some of his officers, was on his way 



12 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

to Egypt. The night was clear, the sea was 
cahn, and the sky above the ship was studded 
with stars. The officers were engaged in an 
animated rehgious discussion, and when it was 
about to close they seemed to have proven to 
their own satisfaction that there was no God. 
Their hero all the while was apparently absorbed 
in other things, but it was only in appearance. 
He had heard the entire discussion, and had 
noted their conclusion, for, just as it closed, he 
said to them, '^ All that is very well, gentlemen;" 
and pointing to the myriads of stars blazing in 
glory above them, he asked, '^but who made 
these?" Echo answers. Who? They are the 
tracks of Jehovah. 

2. Design. This is an old argmnent, as sim- 
ple as it is sound. It can never be overturned. 
We might as well expect to see the rocks of 
Gibraltar hurled into the sea as to look for a suc- 
cessful refutation of this great argument. An 
intelligent man for the first time examines an 
ordinary watch with its complicated and in- 
tricate machinery. He notes its levers and 
springs, its wheels and cogs, its strong case and 
clear face, its hour, minute and second hands, 
and he sees how accurately it marks the progress 
of time. What must be his conclusion? Please 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 13 

note that I do not ask what it may be, but what 
it inust be. There can be but one : This watch 
had a designer; it could not have come by chance. 
Dr. Frankhn once silenced a skeptic on this wise. 
The skeptic argued that the world did not im- 
ply a designer, but that it was the result of 
chance. One morning when this skeptical 
friend called, Franklin showed him a small globe. 
He had never seen one before, and asked what 
it was, and who made it. Franklin told him 
that it was a picture of the earth, but that no 
one made it, it just happened to be in that shape ; 
it was a freak of chance. His friend saw the 
point, and his skepticism vanished. And I 
w^ould ask, which is the easier — to make the 
globe, or to make its picture? 

If you should visit a new coimtry and find 
palaces, gardens, streets, railways, steamships, 
and all things necessary for the comfort of man, 
could you fail to believe that these things were 
the result of design? With the alphabet in a 
sack, would you expect to shake it up and pour 
it on paper and get a poem? With the colors 
thrown carelessly on the canvas, would you ex- 
pect a picture? Is it not as reasonable to be- 
lieve that the palaces of the world came by 
chance as that this splendid earthly home of 



14 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

ours SO came? If even a little poem must have an 
intelligent author, how can we believe the great 
volume of Nature has none? Why not a paint- 
ing by chance as well as this marvelous picture 
gallery of the universe? Is it easier to make a 
man than to make his picture? 

If you should see a ship making annual voy- 
ages to some distant port, and returning at a 
regular time, laden with food and clothing for 
the people of an isolated island, and never de- 
viating a mile from her course, and never an 
hour late, would it be possible to believe it the 
result of chance? Although you never saw 
them, still you would know she had a captain, 
a pilot, a chart and compass, who directed her 
on her missions of mercy. Let us think of our 
world as a great ship sweeping round the sun, 
and returning laden with all that man needs, 
and never out of her course the fraction of an 
•inch, or a single second late. It must be that 
a wise and loving Father is at the helm. Reason 
as well as religion can accept no other con- 
clusion. 

Joseph Cook finds in nature a beautiful il- 
lustration of this thought. He says that almost 
imperceptible creatures are building, in the 
Indian Ocean, a vessel known as Neptune'.s 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 15 

Cup. It is sometimes six feet high, and half as 
broad. These httle creatures have no consul- 
tation with each other. Each works in a sep- 
arate cell, cut off from the other, like prisoners 
in a penitentiary. They build the stem to the 
proper height, and then begin to widen. Every- 
thing is proportioned according to a perfect 
plan. Is the plan theirs? or does it proceed 
from a power above them and act through 
them? So the bioplasts, isolated from each 
other in the living tissues which they produce, 
build the rose and violet and all flowers; the 
pomegranate, cedar, oak and all trees ; the eagle, 
canary and all birds; the lion, leopard and all 
animals; the bone, muscle and all men; and so 
from the cup he drank the glad w^ine of Design. 

ARGUMENT FROM WITHIN. 

The heavens and the earth, with all creation, 
proclaim the presence and power of God. This 
is wonderful testimony, and constitutes a foun- 
dation on which the soundest reason and pro- 
foundest philosophy may rear the Temple of 
Hope. But it is not all, nor is it the best. God 
would have his children without excuse in this 
matter of faith, and hence he makes the voice 



16 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

within corroborate that from without, and thus 
the basis of the rehgious Hfe is made doubly 
sure. 

God makes no half hinges. The desire on the 
part of man for bread, water, light and sound 
presupposes his capacity for, and his need of, 
these things, just as the fin of the fish implies a 
fluid in which to swim, and the wing of the bird 
an atmosphere in which to fly. The Being who 
created the bird and fish also created these 
elements, and without them they could not 
exist. The Creator of man so constituted him 
that he must have bread and water, or he will 
die; and he must have light and sound in order 
to attain the highest physical life. These things 
are part and parcel of his fleshly life, and in his 
normal condition they are never absent. All 
men, believers and unbelievers alike, agree here. 
And they agree, further, that these wants are not 
the result of teaching or development, but are 
a part of his nature. 

Can we find a parallel of this in his spiritual 
nature? If so, then it follows with the force of 
a demonstration that there is a God. Man has 
been called a ''religious animal." He has been 
characterized as ''hopelessly so; " i. e., he is not 
only religious by nature, but his religious in- 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 17 

stincts cannot be destroyed. He has never 
been discovered without some form of reUgion. 
However fallen and degraded, there is some- 
thing within which reaches after God; and a 
piteous voice that cries to the unseen for help. 
A few times he has been found so low that at 
first it was thought he had no spiritual aspira- 
tions. But, on closer examination, this was 
discovered to be an error. It is as easy to find 
him without speech as without religion. It is a 
part of his very being, and his soul can no more 
exist without it than his body can live without 
bread and water. William Shakespeare, the 
world's great poet, it is supposed knew some- 
thing of himian nature; and here is. what he 
says on this point: 

"The dread of something after death, 
That undiscovered country 
From whose bourne no traveler returns, 
Puzzles the will . . 
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all." 

Put emphasis on ^'thus," and you get the 
poet's point. Looking forward to a place of 
punishment beyond the veil makes cowards of 
us all. Not simply such as are under the in- 
fluence of Christianity, but also the ancient 
Greek, Roman and pagan. This dread is a part 



18 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

of our nature, and is as natural as the song in 
the moment of joy, and the groan in the moment 
of sorrow. It is organic and ineradicable. And 
this is not simply the teaching of Shakespeare, 
but is the voice of the great students of human 
nature since time began. And it is also the 
voice of Paul. ''When the Gentiles, which have 
not the law, do by nature the things contained 
in the law, these, having not the law,, are a law 
unto themselves: which show the work of the 
law written in their hearts, their conscience also 
bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean- 
while accusing or else excusing one another'^ 
(Rom. ii. 14, 15). Bishop Butler says, ''Con- 
science without being consulted, always natural- 
ly, and of course, unless forcibly stopped, goes 
forward to anticipate a sentence higher than its 
own, and which shall hereafter second and con- 
firm its decisions.'' It is this which is so large 
an element in our own desire for God, and it 
must be accounted for. A volcanic peak sud- 
denly rises a thousand feet above the water 
in midocean. What is its basis? No sane man 
would say that it rested on the waves. There 
must be something solid beneath it. But such 
a towering peak would not be more prominent 
than this instinctive propensity of man to wor- 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 19 

ship. On what does it rest? It is deep seated, 
and refuses to be removed. He may be induced 
to abandon an old religion and espouse a new 
one, but he must have religion. If he loses 
loiowledge of the true God, he will adopt a false 
one. There is no pinnacle in the whole range of 
human nature which stands out more clearly 
than this ; and therefore it must rest on the same 
basis which supports human nature. 

A student was annoyed by the singing of a 
canary. Some one suggested that it w^as a bird 
in another cage w^hich made it sing, and he moved 
it. But the song continued. It was not the 
presence of its companion which made it sing, 
but a something within, placed there by its 
Maker. Its song was a part of its life — as much 
so as shining is a part of the life of the sim, and 
as exhaling sweet fragrance is a part of the life 
of the rose; and so, whether alone or with its 
companion, in shine or shade, in winter and in 
summer, alw^ays and everywhere the canary 
sings. So the heart sings to God, not because 
of the absence or presence of friends or foes, or 
because of any outside influence, but because of 
its innate yearnings. Beecher says : ''The ocean 
is the same, whatever craft sail up and down 
upon it ; whether they be pleasure boats, brigs, 



20 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

merchant ships, pirates, or men-of-war; so, 
whatever rehgious navigators may be going 
up and down the sea of hfe^ its depths and 
shores and distant haven remain the same. 
The stars never change for astrologers or as- 
tronomers. They roll calmly above storms and 
above opinions. So man's nature does not vary 
for circumstances, or conflicting views, but still 
wants God above, and fellow-man below." 

It is as impossible for us to get away from God 
as it was when David wrote: ''Whither shall I 
go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from 
thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou 
art there ; if I make my bed in the grave, behold, 
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morn- 
ing and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right 
hand shall hold me. If I say. Surely the dark- 
ness shall cover me, even the night shall be light 
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from 
thee; but the night shineth as the day: the 
darkness and the light are both alike to thee" 
(Ps. cxxxix. 7-12). He follows us as the shadow 
follows the substance. This thought was pow- 
erfully impressed on me the day I first saw Pike's 
Peak, the great monarch of the Rockies, stand- 
ing like a sentinel from the skies, guarding that 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 21 

world of mountains. I needed no one to point it 
out to me. The moment my eyes rested on it, 
I exclaimed, '^There's Pike's Peak!'' And for 
almost a hundred miles it was seldom out of 
view, and seemed to keep alongside of our train, 
as if it, too, was mo^dng. It looked as if we 
would never get away from it. And so the 
thought of God, towering high above ali others, 
follows us through every experience in life. It 
fills the mind of the little child with awe, and 
trembles in reverence on the lips of old age. It 
throbs in the heart of youth as he nears man- 
hood, and becomes his inspiration in the stern 
battles of life. It is a benediction at the mar- 
riage altar, and the one solace and stay at the 
open grave. It goes side by side with the poor 
wretch on the downward way to ruin, and on the 
pathway of the just it shines more and more 
imto the perfect day. The murderer cannot 
drive it from his narrow cell, and all bad men 
and demons combined cannot rob the dying 
martyr of its holy presence. 

Tell man that there is no God; and after a 
moment of terrible suspense he will look you 
in the face and declare that your teaching is 
inhuman; that if this life is not to be followed 
by another and better life; that if hopes are only 



22 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

born to be blighted; if ties are only made lo be 
sundered; if heart yearnings are only roused to 
be crushed; if man is only created to be de- 
stroyed — then God must be either weak or 
wicked. He will quote you Browning^s forceful 
lines : 

"Truly there needs another Ufe to come! 
If this be all 

And another life await us not for one, 
I say 'tis a poor cheat, a stupid bungle, 
A wretched failure. I for one protest 
Against, and I hurl it back with scorn." 

Is there a God? Yes; or the voice of Nature 
is false, and the deepest instincts of the heart 
are misleading. 



CHAPTER II. 

DID THE BIBLP: COME FROM GOD? 

If there is a God, and if that God, as the 
Christian beUeves, is our Father, then we may 
be sure he has spoken to his children; for what 
earthly parent, with a child away from home, 
would not, if he could, communicate with him? 
Hence our second study: Did the Bible come 
from God? 

In the discussion of this large question both 
our purpose and space forbid the discussion of 
details. Even the much-discussed question of 
Inspiration must be passed by with a sentence, 
for we have in mind the young soul in search of 
the truth, and not the learned theologian, or the 
average Christian with years of experience and 
knowledge. Lowth, speaking on this subject, 
says: ''Inspiration maybe regarded, not as sup- 
pressing or extinguishing for a time the faculties 
of the human mind, but of purifying and 
strengthening and elevating them above what 
they w^ould otherwise reach.'' It is like the 
sun shining through colored glass. The colors 
in the glass are not destroyed, but rather height- 

23 



24 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

ened and brightened. And so the personality 
of the Bible writers is preserved and perpetuated. 
Paul, for example, is as distinctly himself when 
inspired of God, as when he writes of his own 
accord. 

Nature bears the marks of divine origin. Man 
never made the heavens nor the earth. As 
well might we say that the great bridges which 
span our rivers and the ships which ride the seas 
are the works of ten-year-old boys. And so 
the Bible bears marks of its divine origin. What 
are some of them? 

ITS UNITY. 

The Bible is one hook; not because it is bound 
in a single volume, but because of the plan and 
purpose manifest on every page. 'Taradise Losf 
and ^^The Course of Time" are not more distinct 
unities. Barnes is right in claiming that it has 
'^ a beginning, a middle, and an end — a beginning, 
a middle, and an end more complete, extending 
through more years, and embracing a greater 
variety of characters and events than any other 
volume in the world — its beginning the begin- 
ning of creation ; its middle the Incarnation and 
the Atonement ; its end the consunmiation of the 
world's affairs." 



FIRST PKINCIPLES 25 

That one may better appreciate this high and 
true claim, let us remember: 

1. The people from whom it came. The Jews 
had no scientific or Uterary fame. They were 
regarded as narrow and bigoted, with no am- 
bition in these directions. The Chaldeans and 
Egyptians had their observatories through which 
they were familiar \\\.\h. the heavens, and splen- 
did temples dedicated to literature, science and 
religion. Had the Bible come from these 
people it w^ould not have been so strange. But 
it came from a people just the reverse; a people 
as incapable of producing such a book as Alaska 
is of producing the California orange. And 
yet Milton (and who knows better?) says, ''No 
songs are comparable to the songs of Zion; no 
orations are equal to those of the prophets ; and 
no politics are like those which the Scriptures 
teach." 

2. The number of the writers. The Bible of the 
Chinese has but one author: Confucius; and the 
Koran is from the pen of Mohammed. But the 
Bible has more than forty authors. 

3. Character of these icriters. Some of them 
were men of renown, and others were fishermen 
and shepherds. Some were men of culture, and 



26 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

others were •'unlearhea ana ignorant." Some 
of them, by travel, had come in touch with the 
wisdom of the world, but most of them were 
never beyond the narrow limits of their native 
land. 

4. The length of time they were writing. The 
Bible was not written in a single year, or during 
a period of several years, but more than fifteen 
hundred years swept by between its beginning 
and its close. 

5. The changes going on in the world during 
this time. These were many and vast. The 
whole earth was feverish and restive like a 
volcano ; it heaved and sighed and groaned like 
an ocean in a storm. Great conquerors founded 
empires which swayed the world for a moment, 
and then passed away; and discoveries followed 
each other in rapid succession in the scientific 
world; there was as little rest among the scholars 
as among the soldiers; and vast revolutions of 
many kinds were shaking the earth to her center. 
But despite all this, the Bible writers, like men 
in a cave, sheltered from the storm raging about 
them, slowly and surely pushed their work to 
completion. 

How, under these circumstances, are we to 
account for the perfect unity of the Bible? It 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 27 

came from a people who had never produced 
anything of the kind; it is the joint work of more 
than forty writers differing greatly from each 
other, and without conference with each othei", 
or knowledge of the fact that they were engaged 
in writing a single book; their work covered a 
period of more than fifteen hundred years of 
the most turbulent history of the world. (What 
man has lived long enough to supervise the 
writing of a book during so long a time?) And 
yet the keynote sounded at first was the key- 
note to the last. ''It is susceptible of easy 
proof/^ says Barnes, ''that one part is the com- 
pletion or complement of the other, as the two 
parts of a tally, or as complementary colors; not 
as the Jews would have done it, but as it was 
intended it should be. There is a scheme com- 
menced. There is an anticipation. There is 
progress. There is a completion in the Messiah. 
There is the unfolding of a plan running through 
many centuries ; one writer in one age stating one 
thing, and another in another, as if in one age 
an ariist should have fashioned an arm, and 
another a leg; and one a hand, and another a 
foot; one the nose, another the lips, another 
the chin ; one the form and size of the head, and 
another the body; and all at last should have 



28 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

been put together in the form of Minerva or 
Apollo." Such a book is as different from all 
other books as the sun is different from a taper, 
and like the sun it bears on its shining face the 
proof of its divine origin. 

ITS VITALITY. 

Books, like men, are born, live their little day, 
die, and are forgotten. . This results from va- 
rious causes: 

1. They are coymnonplace. They lack the 
merit that perpetuates. They have a few 
friends and a local reputation, but the great, 
wide world neither knows of them nor cares for 
them. It is appalling to see this large and ever- 
increasing list ; it is enough to make an author's 
pen fall from his fingers. It is like the advance 
of an army, which can be traced by the refuse in 
its wake. Here is an old wagon; there is a dis- 
abled piece of artillery; and yonder an old horse, 
no longer able to keep his place in the ranks. 
And so there are many books which cannot keep 
up with the procession of this on-going world. 
Their only friend is the antiquarian. He may 
preserve them because they are rare. But this 
is a doubtful honor, for if they had been valuable 
they would not have been rare. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 29 

2. They have been displaced by better books. 
If all of this class were piled together they would 
make a small mountain. They were once use- 
ful, but better books have taken their place, and 
they are now fit companions of the old-time 
engine and reaper. 

3. They are false. The works of Ptolemy, 
with all other books founded on the Ptolemaic 
system of astronomy, are illustrations of this 
class. Though ingenious and profound, they 
passed away when the Copernican theory was 
established; and their chief value to-day is that 
they mark the mighty progress of science. 

But the Bible belongs to neither of these 
classes. It is not found in the hands of the 
antiquarian, honored solely because of its quaint- 
ness and its age; better books are not pushing 
it aside; and it is not being discarded because 
of its errors; but it holds its high place in the 
vanguard of the world. It is translated into 
more languages than any other book; better 
presses are printing it; more money and skill 
are spent in its embellishment; it finds a wel- 
come in more and better homes ; and its influence 
is now greater than ever before. It has with- 
stood alike its furious foes and its false friends ; 
and, like its Author, it remains the same '^ yes- 



30 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

terday, to-day, and forever/' needing no re- 
vision and adaptation, like our Constitution. 
A few years ago when a new translation of the 
New Testament reached New York, a Chicago 
daily, rather than wait a few hours for the rail- 
road train to bring it, had it flashed over the 
wires, and gave it in full in a single issue to its 
readers. Does that look like it had lost vitality? 
It throbs with life to-day as it has always done, 
and it thrills with life everything that receives it. 
It is as unlike any other book as the mountain 
is like a mole-hill, and it shows, as does the 
mountain, that Jehovah is its Author. 

ITS POWER TO BLESS. 

Here is perhaps its highest proof of heavenly 
origin. That which always ennobles, elevates 
and purifies must be of God. In my old Vir- 
ginia hom.e the land is thin and much fertilizer is 
used, each plant of tobacco receiving a table- 
spoonful of the guano. It sometimes happens 
that a small part of a field is neglected because 
the supply of fertilizer is exhausted. In such 
a case you can tell by the feebleness of the plant 
every one so neglected. And when w^e look 
over the world we can discover by the ricli 
foliage and fruit just where the fertilizing influ- 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 31 

ence of the old Book has gone. Solomon states 
this thought in one of his proverbs: ''Where 
there is no vision the people perish; but he that 
keepeth the law, happy is 'he " (Prov. xxix. 18). 

There are those who claim that human culture, 
philosophy, science, art, etc., are better for man 
than the Bible. If so, the map of the world 
should show it. Egypt was once the seat of 
the world's best learning, but her scholars as 
well as her serfs bowed in worship to the brute. 
Greece in her palmiest days, when reason and 
philosophy reigned supreme, w^as gross and 
sensual in her devotions. And when Corinth 
was famous for beauty and elegance, Venus, 
the very personification of lust, was her god- 
dess. At best these powers could only elevate 
the few, and these they failed to purify. They 
could build the pyramids and the colisemn, 
but they could not build up the morals of the 
people. One emperor slew twenty thousand 
men in celebrating a Roman holiday. 

Now see the Bible tested. Look upon the 
lands where it has been open to the masses and 
you see the noblest men, the purest women, the 
largest liberty and the best government. Be- 
hold England, Scotland and America. Then 
follow the missionary in Asia, Africa and the 



32 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

Sandwich Islands, and see vice changed to 
virtue; savages to saints; barbarism to civiU- 
zation; and woman, the degraded beast of bur- 
den, loved and honored as mother, wife, sister 
and daughter. Some years since a ship was 
wrecked off one of {he Fiji Islands. The crew 
expected to be devoured by cannibals. But 
when two of them discovered a Bible they 
shouted, ''All right; here is a Bible; no fear 
now!'' 

And in its influence it touches all parts of 
life. In the realm of Law reason perhaps 
reaches its highest development, and yet the 
Bible seems a fixture there. A skeptical lawyer, 
impressed with the accuracy, profundity and 
marvelous comprehensiveness of the Ten Com- 
mandments, said, ''I have read history. The 
Egyptians and the adjacent nations were 
idolaters; so were the Greeks and Romans; 
and the wisest and best Greeks and Romans 
never gave a code like this. Where did Moses 
get this law which surpasses the wisdom and 
philosophy of the most enlightened ages?" 
And soon he became a Christian. And along 
with this sound reasoner are found Blackstone, 
Marshall, Story and Kent. 

It also blesses in the political realm. Even 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 33 

Voltaire said, ''Not to believe in any God 
would be an error incompatible with wise 
government." The nation that receives it feels 
the flush of health and the vigor of life in the 
body politic. Great statesmen like Burke and 
Pitt and Webster might he called as witnesses 
here. Let us hear Webster: "If we abide by 
the principles taught in the Bible, our country 
will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we 
and our posterity neglect its instructions and 
authority, no man can tell how sudden a catas- 
trophe may overwhelm us, and bury all our 
glory in profound obscurity." 

And what is true in law and political science 
is equally true in learning and literature. 
Whence the origin of the great schools of the 
civihzed world, such as Prague, Heidelberg, 
Leipzig, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale? 
And if we had the time we might show that this 
Book is also a blessing in the world of archi- 
tecture, poetry, art, and in every realm, high and 
low alike, into which God calls his children. It 
fits all nations, races and conditions. It is all 
men's book. The poor and the rich, the wise 
and the ignorant, the weak and the strong, the 
sad and the glad — everywhere and always it 
comes to bless. 



34 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

Whence this wonderful Book? How came it 
with a unity, vitaUty and power to bless above 
all other books? Did it come from earth or 
heaven? from man or God? Is it the result of 
unaided human reason? or of divine inspira- 
tion? Columbus never explored South Am- 
erica, but only touched it at a few places on the 
northern coast ; and yet he had no hesitation in 
pronouncing it a continent. As he gazed on the 
vast volume of fresh water rushing through the 
wide-mouthed Orinoco into the sea, he said, 
'^That stream, comrades, never came from an 
island : be sure it gathered its giant waters from 
a vast continent." And when we contemplate 
the stream of blessing flowing from this Book we 
instinctively exclaim in the eloquent language 
of another, ^'This Book, so boundless in re- 
sources, never came from a created mind; it 
bears its own witness to its divine origin. Man 
is not its author, but man's Maker; its fulness 
betokens not the finite, but the Infinite/' 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW TO STUDY THE NEAV TESTAMENT. 

The entire Bible is ours, and it is important 
that we know how to study it as a whole; but 
there are special reasons why we should under- 
stand the New Testament. It is the consti- 
tution of the new covenant under which we live, 
and a full knowledge of this covenant can not be 
had except through the New Testament. Much 
injury has resulted from the want of a clean-cut 
distinction between the Old and New Testa- 
ments. Many religious teachers treat the two 
volumes as if they were identical in their teach- 
ings. They are as apt to send a penitent sinner 
to the Psalms of David or the wailings of Jere- 
miah for instruction as to how to be saved, as to 
the Book of Acts. And when we come to the 
New Testament we often find similar confusion. 
They seem to think that the different parts of 
the book just happened to get into their present 
places; that Matthew might as well have been 
the last as the first, and that Revelation was 
not necessarily the last section of the volume. 

The idea, in many cases, seems to be that these 

35 



36 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

different books of the New Testament found 
their several places much as different tracts 
might find theirs when bound together by a 
publisher without reference to their contents. 
But such a conception is as far from the truth 
as the east is from the west. This book is as 
systematic in its arrangement as any text-book. 
Matthew is first because it ought to be first, and 
Revelation is last because it ought to be last. 
Man, spiritually, is a fourfold creature, and this 
book is fourfold in its divisions, each division 
meeting and supplying the spiritual wants in the 
order of their occurrence. These divisions have 
one great fundamental purpose which gives 
character to them. It is true they contain 
many other important things, but these are 
subordinate. The Mississippi River, in its long 
journey, runs toward every point of the com- 
pass ; and yet, when speaking in general, it is 
correct to say that it flows southward. 

FIRST WANT. 

The first spiritual want of one studying 
Christianity relates to Christ. An educated 
Hindoo, with a clear head and good heart, 
having heard of the Christian religion, lands in 
New York for the purpose of investigating it. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 37 

The first Sunday morning finds him hstening 
to a Presbyterian preacher. When he analyzes 
the sermon he finds that its central thought is 
that of a great person called by various names : 
Christ, Jesus, Savior, Lord, etc. At night he 
hears a Methodist preacher, whose sermon in 
many respects is different from the other, but 
both are identical so far as this central thought 
is concerned. He continues to hear eminent 
men for months, and they differ in a thousand 
minor details, but are a unit concerning the 
Christ. He is to their theology what the sun is 
to the solar system — its center ; the point around 
which all things else revolve, and from which 
they receive their light and life. He now 
selects a competent teacher and his studies be- 
gin in earnest. 

This teacher, that this first want of his may 
be suppUed, directs him in a careful study of the 
first division of the New Testament : Matthew, 
Mark, Luke and John. He has him witness the 
baptism of Jesus (Matt. iii. 13-17), with the visi- 
ble dove-like descent of the Spirit, and the audi- 
ble voice from the skies. His pupil is deeply 
impressed, and asks for further instruction. 

He, is next shown the Lord as he hushes the 
sea into silence. (Mark iv. 35-41.) The tired 



38 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

Savior is asleep in the little boat. The storm- 
king arouses the waves and the sea becomes so 
furious that the disciples, experienced seamen, 
familiar with such dangers, moved with fear, 
awoke him, saying, ''Master, carest thou not 
that we perish?" Arising from his hard bed, 
filled with the majesty and mercy of Jehovah, 
he waves his hand and says, ''Peace, be still!" 
and the wild winds cease their roaring, the mad 
waves crouch at his feet, and the sea, calm as 
an infant's slumber, permits the frail vessel to 
pass on in safety to the shore. The teacher 
asks what he thinks of One whom the winds and 
the waves obey. He answers, "He is wonderful ; 
but let me see more of him." 

They now go to a desert place (Matt. xiv. 13-21) 
to see him feed the five thousand on five loaves 
and two fishes. The hungry throng is seated 
on the grass, and the food, after being blessed, 
is passed to them by the apostles; and when 
all had eaten they took up twelve baskets full 
of the fragments. Again the teacher seeks an 
opinion, and again his pupil expresses wonder, 
but asks for more evidence before rendering a 
verdict. 

Before leaving this miracle, let me say that 
it is one of the mightiest the Savior ever 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 39 

wrought. It is easy to deceive the eye, the ear 
and the touch; but not so of the appetite of a 
hungry man. You cannot convince him that 
he has been fed until you feed him. If you 
think you can, try it with the hungry school-boy, 
as he comes bounding home from school. And 
yet Jesus, with these few loaves and fishes, 
convinced these hungry thousands that they 
had been fed. 

The resurrection of Lazarus (John xi. 1-46) 
is next studied. The Christ with the sympathy 
of a man and the power of God, cries with a 
loud voice: '^ Lazarus, come forth!" And the 
arms of Death are broken, and the dead, alive 
again, is restored to his weeping sisters. Doubt 
now vanishes, and the young man joyfully 
proclaims: ''It is enough! it is enough! I be- 
lieve in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior 
of men!" 

Thus the first want of the spiritual nature, 
who is Jesus? is met and supplied by the first 
di^dsion of the New Testament — the Gospels. 
''Many other signs truly did Jesus in the pres- 
ence of his disciples, which are not written in 
this book; but these are written that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; 
and believing ye might have life through his 



40 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

name'' (John xx. 30, 31). "Believe me that I 
am in the Father and the Father in me, or else 
beheve me for the very works' sake^' (John xiv. 
11). " Rabbi, we beheve thou art a teacher come 
from God; for no man can do these miracles that 
thou doest except God he with him'' (John ill. 2). 
It is popular in some circles to ignore the 
miracles altogether; to throw them out of 
court, as unw^orthy of consideration by this 
cultured age. But, before agreeing to this 
wholesale slaughter of Bible evidence, let it be 
remembered that the people among whom they 
were wrought did not deny them. They at- 
tempted to cUscount them by ascribing them to 
Beelzebub (Mark iii. 22) ; but it was a later age — 
much later — that discarded them altogether. 
Suppose a young man, after much research 
and profound thought (?), decides that the battle 
of Gettysburg is a myth; no such conflict ever 
occurred. But when he closes his eloquent 
address an old, battle-scarred veteran of Pickett's 
division, who lost an arm in that famous 
charge, says, ''Young man, that was a fine 
speech, but it is false; there w^as such a battle, 
for it was there I lost my good, right arm." 
Whom shall we believe? the man who was 
on the ground when the battle was fought, 



FIRST PRINCIPLEi 41 

or the man who was born forty years 
later? 

Let it also be remembered that the greatest 
miracle of all would be that he who is the chief 
of all miracles should have wrought no miracles. 
''You may as well expect the sun to send forth 
darkness as to expect ordinary works from 
such an extraordinary being." 

But more important still, let it never be for- 
gotten that when we give up miracles we give 
up Christianity. If there be no miracles, then 
there was no Incarnation, no Resurrection, and 
no Ascension, and without these there is no 
Christianity. 

SECOND WANT. 

Knowing himself a sinner, and having found 
the Savior, the second spiritual want voices 
itself in the question. What must I do to be 
saved? Here is salvation, how can I appro- 
priate it? His teacher turns him to the Book 
of Acts, the second division of the New Testa- 
ment. Here he finds perhaps a half -million 
people ^Aith this same want in their hearts, and 
this same question on their lips; and he finds 
that all of them heard the gospel, believed it, 
repented of their sins and were baptized in the 



42 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and 
he too, without quibble or delay, is buried in the 
symbolic grave, and rises to walk in newness of 
life. 
This lesson learned, the 

THIRD WANT 

of his spiritual nature asserts itself. He 
would tell others of the Savior he had found; 
and he would know more of his blessed Master, 
and drink in more and more of his spirit: in a 
word, the one consuming desire of his soul was 
that he might become like his Lord. His 
song was: 

"More about Jesus would I know, 
More of his grace to others show: 
More of his saving fulhiess see, 
More of his love who died for me. 

"More about Jesus let me learn, 
More of his holy will discern; 
Spirit of God, my teacher be, 
Showing the things of Christ to me. 

"More about Jesus, in his word 
Holding communion with my Lord; 
Hearing his voice in every line. 
Making each faithful saying mine" 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 43 

His teacher now directs him in the study of 
the Epistles, the third division of the New 
Testament. Beginning with Romans, each of 
these twenty-one books is studied, and they are 
found to be directed to Christians to show them 
how to Uve the Christian hfe. His soul revels 
in their richness, and he is soon active and 
useful in the church. AVhenever duty calls he 
responds, and wherever the door of opportunity 
opens he enters in. He grows in grace and in 
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
becomes a pillar in the temple of God. 

Now let us at a single bound pass over a 
half century of time, and find ourselves in the 
house of this same man, now fourscore years 
of age. The eyes once so clear and bright are 
now dim; the ears once so sensitive to sound 
are now dull; the hair once black as the raven's 
wing is now white as snow; and the manly 
form once erect and strong now stoops and 
staggers under the weight of years. He is no 
longer able to meet with his brethren in public 
worship; his active work has all been turned 
over to others ; and sitting there on the summit 
of a long and fruitful life, he gazes yearningly 
into the future. He has been so busy hitherto 
that he has had little time for thoughts of this 



44 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

kind. His old teacher is still at his elbow, and 
he recognizes in all this the 

FOURTH WANT 

of his spiritual nature ; and he opens the book 
of Revelation, the fourth division of the New 
Testament, the prophetic department, that 
this want may be supplied. He reads to him, 
''Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from 
henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may 
rest from their labors: and their works do fol- 
low them" (xiv, 13). The old man puts his hand 
to his ear, saying, ''My hearing is not as keen 
as it once was; please repeat that verse to me;" 
and it is repeated slowly and distinctly. "Thank 
God for that precious passage," he continues. 
"It pronounces a blessing on those who die 'in 
the Lord.' I have been in him for fifty years, 
and I am soon to die. And it promises 'rest.'" 
I am tired. The long, rough road has worn me 
out. And now as a tender mother at the close 
of day rocks the tired child to sleep, so God will 
lay my wearied body down to rest in the bosom 
of the earth till the resurrection morn. But 
this is not all. It says my works are to follow 
me. I have not done much, it is true, but I have 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 45 

done something; and these Uttle waves of in- 
fluence which I placed in motion will continue 
to roll on long after I am gone, and they will 
never stop until they reach the shores of 
eternity." 

His teacher quotes another passage: ''And 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; 
and there shall be no more death, neither sor- 
row nor crying ; neither shall there be any more 
pain, for the former things are passed away'' 
(xxi. 4). His old face brightens and he praises 
God that there will be no pain, no sorrow, no 
tears and no death in the home to which he is 
going. 

A third time his teacher quotes to him: 
''Blessed are they who do his commandments, 
that they may have right to the tree of life, and 
may enter in through the gates into the city" 
(xxi. 14). Again this ripe old saint breaks forth 
in praise. "I remember," he says, "that in 
Eden before sin came our parents held sweet 
communion with God, and dwelt near the tree 
of life. But when sin entered they were 
driven out into the cold, dark world; but in 
Christ we are to regain all this, and to retain it 
forever and forever." And with this last utter- 



46 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

ance the angels came and bore his yearning 
spirit back to God. 

A wonderful book is this. It found this young 
man groping his way in darkness, and it gave 
him light. It first led him to the Christ, the Son 
of God and the Savior of men. It next told 
him how to be saved. It then led him in ways 
of usefulness and joy as a Christian. And 
finally it opened the grave for him and hung 
a light in its dark vault ; it unbolted the gates to 
the New Jerusalem and ushered him into the 
presence of the tree of life, and God wiped all 
his tears away. How shall we account for its 
perfect adaptation to the wants of man? There 
is but one way; each has a common author. 
The Being who created man with these fourfold 
wants is the author of this book with its four- 
fold supplies. 



CHAPTER IV. ' 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST SEEN IN HIS WISDOM. 

In our studies thus far we have settled, we 
hope, three important points; the existence of 
God, the Bible as his message to man, and the 
perfect adaptation of the New Testament to 
our spiritual wants. In the last of these studies 
we found the Christ, and saw something of his 
wonderful power — sufficient, perhaps, for our 
present purposes. But in this and in our next 
two studies we will linger about him. He is so 
inseparably associated with Christianity that 
he must have a large place in the study of its 
first principles. We cannot ignore the sun 
while we study astronomy. 

Our present purpose is to show that his wis- 
dom proves his divinity. ''Never man spake 
like this man" (John vii. 46). If he is divine, this 
must be true. His speech must not be that of 
man with his faults and frailties, but the voice 
of God, and perfect as its Author. 

MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS WISDOM. 

1. The wisdom of childhood. Doubtless his 
mother, when we see her, will tell us that while 

47 



48 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

he was a little boy playing about her knees 
he said many strangely wise things for one 
of his years. But so far as the records 
show his wisdom was first manifested in 
his twelfth year. His parents had taken him 
to Jerusalem. What wonders greeted his vision. 
The great buildings, the magnificent court, 
the impressive ritualism, the solemn sacrifices, 
the sublime music, and the millions of worship- 
pers must have deeply impressed his young 
mind. But these were not the most impres- 
sive things. The temple was the seat of Jewish 
knowledge. There their teachers met in counsel ; 
there their scriptures were interpreted; there 
the law was expounded; and so interested 
was the "boy in all this that when his parents 
started on the homeward journey he lingered 
in this delightful atmosphere. A search was 
made for him, and he was found in the 
midst of these teachers, hearing them and 
asking them questions. (Luke ii. 46.) How 
we wish we knew some of the questions he 
asked. But we will have to wait till we pass 
over to the other side. 

2. The Sermon on the Mount. Even at the 
risk of being called sacrilegious I venture to 
say that this old and revered title: '^Sermon 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 49 

on the Mount," is largely a misnomer. This 
is no mere sermon, but rather the inaugural 
address of our King as he mounts his throne 
and begins his reign; a general summary of the 
principles in the charter of the new government. 

Is it feeble and commonplace? Does it 
savor of the spirit and thought of the time and 
place in which it was spoken? Does it not rise 
above these like the dome of heaven rises 
above the earth? Is not every word and 
sentence as fresh as when they fell from the 
gracious lips of the great teacher? Does it 
not contain the germs of individual and national 
civilization, and the truth by which a lost 
world is to be saved? Does it not bear the 
unmistakable impress of heaven? 

3. Church and State. Few questions are 
more perplexing than that of church and 
state. And the Pharisees and Herodians, anx- 
ious to involve him in their party quarrels, asked 
him whether it was lawful to pay taxes to 
Rome. A shrewd trap truly. Whatever the 
answer, he must be entangled. If he answers, 
Yes, the Jews will turn against him. If the 
answer is No, the Romans will arrest him as 
a rebel against Caesar. But his answer is 
neither yes nor no. He called for a penny 



50 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

bearing the image and superscription of the 
Roman Emperor, and said, ''Render unto 
Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto 
God the things that are God's,'' and thus laid 
down the only principle by which this vexed 
question can be settled. (Matt. xxii. 15-22.) 

4. Marriage in Heaven. The Sadducee with 
his coarse conceptions, incapable of thinking 
on spiritual things, thought to entangle him on 
the subject of marriage in the future world. 
They tell him of a woman who had seven hus- 
bands, and the seven were brothers, and ask, 
if there is to be such a world, whose wife will 
she be. He told them that life would be 
continuous, but that the true life was spiritual, 
not fleshly, and therefore the future life, as 
regarding marriage, would be like that of the 
angels. (Matt. xxii. 23-30.) 

5. The great Commandment. The Talmud 
says there are six hmidred and thirteen com- 
mandments; two hundred and forty-eight posi- 
tive and three hundred and sixty-five negative, 
and none but an angel could keep them, hence 
their anxiety to find one comprehensive enough 
to embrace them all, and so he is asked, 
''Master, which is the great commandment 
in the law? Jesus said unto them, Thou shalt 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 51 

love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." 
Here they would have had him stop; for in 
their selfishness and conceit they recognized no 
obligation to others. But he did not stop, but 
continued, ''this is the first and great command- 
ment; but the second is like unto it, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. On these 
two commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets" (Matt, xxii. 34-40). 

6. The adulterous woman. And when these 
sanctimonious hypocrites, knowing his mercy 
to the erring, seek to involve him in a con- 
troversy with Moses, he drove the truth into 
their guilty consciences by saying, ''He that 
is without sin among you let him first cast a 
stone at her"; and they "being convicted by 
their own conscience, went out one by one, 
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last." 
And turning to the woman, he asked, "Where 
are those thine accusers? hath no man con- 
denmed thee? She said, No man, Lord. And 
Jesus said unto her. Neither do I condemn 
thee: go and sin no more" (John viii. 3-11). 

7. The Parables. Much of the Master's teach- 
ing was parabolic, the simplest, and yet the 
most difficult method of instruction. At first 



52 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

sight one feels that any one could use it. But 
here as everywhere else Christ is inimitable. 
These parables refuse to be duplicated. A 
brainy unbeliever once declared his ability 
to duplicate them, and promised to do it 
in one day. But at night he asked for more 
time, and another day was given. When 
it was gone he still wanted time, and a week 
was added. Then a month, and then three 
months, when he gave up the effort, saying 
he believed them beyond the power of man. 
And such is the conviction of those who have 
studied them most. They grow^ bigger and 
brighter the more we study them; and what at 
first seemed a surface truth, deepens into a 
fathomless sea; and the margins apparently so 
near together become as wide as the world. 

Schaff well says: ''Christ's intellect is 
truly marvelous; he was never deceived by 
appearances; he penetrated through the sur- 
face, and always went straight to the heart 
and marrow; he never asked a question which 
was not perfectly appropriate; he never gave 
an answer which was not fully to the point, 
or which could be better conceived or expressed. 
How often did he silence his cavilers, the 
shrewd and cunning priests and scribes, by 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 53 

a short sentence which hit the nail on the head, 
or struck Uke Hghtning into their conscience, 
or wisely evaded the trap laid for him. Is 
such an intellect clear as the sky, bracing as 
the mountain air, sharp and penetrating as a 
sword, thoroughly healthy and vigorous, always 
ready and always self-possessed" — is this 
the intellect of a mere man? Is he but one 
in many of the world's great thinkers? Is he 
not rather the many in one; totalized human- 
ity? Is his not a voice di\'ine? 

PECULIARITIES. 

There are striking peculiarities about the 
wisdom of Christ which argue with equal 
force his divinity. 

1. He made no mistakes. Other great teachers 
as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, often confess 
their errors. But Christ made no such con- 
fession. And the shrewd enemies who watched 
his every word and work, failed to find a 
mistake. 

2. He spoke without effort. Other famous 
men often reach dizzy summits, but it is 
after long and labored effort. But he speaks 
the highest truth in simplest tones, and there 
is no sign of weariness: no more than in 



54 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

the mountain spring from which fresh, sweet 
water is always gushing. 

3. He spoke ivithout hesitation or consultation. 
The wisest men hesitate and consult before 
venturing an answer on great questions. 
But Christ, whatever the question, always 
answered promptly, and without counsel. On 
the green grass, on the bow of the boat, on 
the mountain side, in the home, in the syna- 
gogue, everywhere this was true. 

4. He never expressed a doubt. Even great 
Socrates often left his disciples in doubt. Of 
immortality he said, ''If death is a removal 
hence to another place, and if what is said 
of death is true, then those who live in Hades 
are henceforth immortal." And among his 
last words, after receiving the fatal cup, he said, 
''The hour of separation has come; I go to 
die, and you to live; but as to which of us is 
destined to an improved being is concealed 
from every one except God.'' ..But however 
intricate and difficult the theme, Christ always 
spoke with absolute assurance. 

5. His was the language of supremest simplicity: 
Goldsmith says of Johnson, "You make your 
little fish talk like whales." And many others 
have this fondness for swollen language. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 5o 

But Christ spoke of the loftiest subjects in 
the simplest language. Who ever needs a 
dictionary to study his words? His language 
is simple enough for a primer, and yet each 
word sparkles like a gem, and his sentences 
and sermons dazzle like a cabinet filled with 
diamonds. No wonder the common people 
heard him gladly. 

6. He combined marvelous sweep, perfection and 
power. Read the parable of the prodigal son. 
Note its mastery of principles; its breadth of 
vision; its knowledge of the human heart; 
its simpUcity of definition ; and its grasping and 
grouping of details. One might as well attempt 
to brighten the sun or sweeten the rose as to 
try to improve this masterpiece in composition. 
And Dickens, supreme in the pathetic style, 
when asked for the most pathetic story in 
Uterature answered, ''The Prodigal Son." 

7. His words are full of inspiration. Shake- 
speare has inspired many during the three 
hundred years since he wrote. It is claimed 
that ''twelve great students of four national- 
ities ''have writ ten commentaries on his dramas. 
This is remarkable. But no admirer of the 
bard of Stratford has been inspired by him 
to leave home and loved ones and go to Darkest 



56 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

Africa to give the message of his adored master 
to the people there. Yet during the last 
century alone the intellectual stimulus of 
Christ's words has been so great that more 
than two hundred dictionaries and grammars 
in as many different languages and dialects 
have been given to the world. 

8. His teachings are not big in hulk. We 
regret that no shorthand reporter was there 
to catch every word of wisdom as it fell 
from his lips, and so we have but little of his 
teaching. Augustine uses thirty volumes to. 
systematize his theology; and Calvin uses forty; 
and Paul writes more of the New Testament 
than does its Lord. We can easily read all 
he said in a single hour. He seemed not to 
care to preserve his words, but cast them 
abroad like the sower does the seed, knowing 
that they would not return unto him void, 
but would accomplish that whereunto they 
were, sent (Isa. Iv. 11). 

HOW ACCOUNT FOR ALL THIS. 

There must be a solution for this strange 
problem. What is it? 

1. It is not his long life and rich experience. 
Socrates was three-score-and-ten when he drank 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 57 

the fatal poison; and Plato was eleven years 
older when he died. But Christ was only 
thirty-three when they nailed him to the cross. 

2. It is not his superior advantages. The 
world's famous teachers have generally been 
life-long students under the most favorable 
circumstances. Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, etc., spent 
their lives in studying books, and listening 
to living teachers. And they traversed the 
world in search of knowledge. They sat at 
the feet of the priests, sages and philosophers 
of Egypt, India, Italy and Greece. But 
Christ had no schools except the very poor 
ones of his people, and no books except the 
Old Testament, and he was too busy at the 
carpenter's bench to go to the world's famous 
teachers, and there were no great ones in 
GaUlee. 

3. But it is because he is God manifest in 
the flesh. In the eloquent language of another 
we close: ^'without science and learning he 
has shed more light on things human and divine 
than all other scholars and philosophers com- 
bined. Without the eloquence of the schools he 
has spoken such words of beauty and power 
as were never spoken before or since. Without 
writing a single line, he has set in motion more 



58 FIRST PEIXCIPLES 

pens, furnished themes for more sermons, ora- 
tions, discussions, and siibhme poems and works 
of art than whole armies of great men of ancient 
and modern times. He has built a pyramid of 
knowledge to which no man has made an 
addition in two thousand years.'' 



CHAPTER V. 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST SEEN IN HIS PURITY. 

If Jesas is divine he must be as perfect 
in his purity as we have found him in wisdom; 
and if he Is thas perfect he Ls divine. Here 
the issue is sharply dra^sm, for what greater 
exception in human Hfe than to find a sinless 
man? 

HIS ENVTRON^IENT. 

Plutarch says, ''The evil passions of men 
are inborn, and not introduced from without; 
and if strict discipline did not come to the 
aid, man would hardly be tamer than the 
\^ildest beast. ^' Seneca says, ''All is full of 
dime and \dce. Iniquity prevails in every 
heart; and innocence has not only become 
rare, but has entirely disappeared.'' And 
Marcus Aurehus says, ^Taithfubess, sense of 
honor, righteousness and truth have taken 
their flight from the wide earth to heaven.'' 

And this testimony from heathendom Ls 
corroborated by the church. The entire Chris- 
tian world, Greek, Latin and Protestant, is 

59 



60 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

a unit as to the universality of sin. Even the 
Virgin Mary is not an exception, for her sinless- 
ness is explained in a papal decision of 1854, as 
the result of a miraculous interposition, and 
the reflex influence of her Holy Son. 

But bad as was the world at large, there 
was never a worse age and place than those 
of the advent of Christ. When he looked 
out from the manger of Bethlehem he saw a 
world rotten to the core. This was specially 
true of Palestine, and in Palestine there was 
no spot quite so bad as Nazareth. It was so 
corrupt that there was a proverb: '^No good 
thing cometh out of Nazareth." It was the 
head-quarters of the Roman legions and, mael- 
strom like, had sucked into its voracious maw 
all evil. There is no such place of corruption as 
a mass of meii with no women except those 
who are bad. The best people fled from 
the place as from a pestilence. And yet it 
was here Christ spent his childhood, youth 
and manhood, and it was here he grew into 
the fairest flower that ever bloomed in the 
gardens of God. Like the water-lily in the 
filthy slough, he developed the whiteness 
and purity of the snow despite his surroundings. 

This is the high claim we make for our 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 61 

Christ. We assert that he is the only one 
who has carried the spotless purity of childhood 
through youth and manhood; the only one 
who has passed through life, touching it at 
every point, and then emerging from the 
tomb and going back to the bosom of the 
father as pure as when he came. And this 
is the claim he makes for himself. Speaking 
to those who were thirsting for his blood, he 
said, ^'Who of you convicteth me of sin?^' 
(John viii. 46). And this challenge has been 
ringing down through the ages from that day 
to this, and no man has yet been able to convict 
him of sin. 

In the light of the law of environment this 
is marvelous. Man has been called a creature 
of circumstances. He seldom rises above his 
surroundings, and his early influences usually 
cling to him through life, making or marring 
his character. No one expects the powers 
of resistance in the hot-house plant, and no 
one expects them absent from the storm- 
shaken oak on the unsheltered hills. OUver 
Twist never fully recovered from his stay 
in Fagin's den, and Jean Valjean never cast 
off the influence of his convict life. But 
Christ, the Sun of Righteousness (Mai. iv. 2) 



62 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

was as little contaminated by the evils which 
surrounded him as is the King of day who 
lights and purifies the filthy earth. 
Let us now study somewhat in detail: 

HIS LIFE. 

1. He was free from selfishness. This detest- 
able vice, so abhorred in others and yet so 
common in ourselves, had no place in him. 
It was he who said, ''It is more blessed to 
give than to receive." And when we imbibe 
this spirit we move out from the low lands 
of selfishness, where every drop of blood is 
poisoned, and we are sick and barren, to the 
high lands of benevolence, where is perpetual 
health, joy and fruitfulness. Renan says, 
''He was free from all selfishness, the source 
of our sorrow, and thought only of his work, 
his race and humanity." 

2. He was free from ambition. He was 
ambitious, it is true, but it was a holy ambition. 
He would reign, but only in the hearts of men; 
and for them he freely gave his love, his 
life, and his hearths blood. His ambition 
was as unlike that of Cyrus, Alexander and 
Napoleon as vice is unlike virtue, as right is 
unlike wrong. His people once pressed him 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 63 

to take a crown, but he departed from them 
into a mountain that he might be alone with 
his Father (John vi. 15). ''Ecce Homo" says, 
''We scarcely know which to admire most, 
the prodigious originality of his conceptions, 
or his entire freedom from worldly ambition 
in the execution of his plans." 

3. He was free from pride. This was the 
first sin to enter the human heart, and it 
seems determined to be the last to leave it. 
Give man money, position and power and 
he is filled with pride. When the flowers are 
fullest of the dews of heaven, and when the 
wheat is richest and ripest, they bow their 
heads in gratitude ; but the more we are enriched 
of God the higher our heads. But how different 
the Christ. When he had preached his great 
sermons he acted as if there were scores about 
him who could have done better. After his 
stupendous miracles he seemed unconscious 
of the fact that he was the only being on earth 
who could do such deeds. When he lifted the 
heavy heel of death from the heart of Lazarus 
he walked away from the grave as if he were 
lea\dng the carpenter's shop after a day of 
ordinary toil. 

4. He was free from covetousness. This 



64 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

sin is well nigh universal among men, but there 
is no trace of it in the Savior. He might 
have had millions for his cures, and yet he lived 
and died the poorest of the poor. '^The foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have 
nests, but the Son of man hath not where to 
rest his head" (Matt. viii. 20). He was so poor 
that a miracle was necessary to pay his temple 
tax (Matt. xvii. 24-27). And he was so poor 
in death that his body rested in a borrowed 
grave (Matt, xxvii. 59-60). 

5. He was free from revenge. Plato being 
told that some one was circulating slanderous 
and malicious reports about him, said, " What 
of it? I will take care to so live that none 
will believe them.'' How beautiful the thought 
that a pure life is its own best defense; and 
how noble the heart that would only silence, not 
harm an enemy. But Christ seeks not simply 
to silence, but to save his foes. When in the 
death agony of Calvary he prayed, '^Father, 
forgive them, they know not what they do." 
And when he sent his disciples forth to save 
men, he told them to go first to Jerusalem 
and preach to those who murdered him. 

6. He was free from sectarianism. How 
great the difference between Jesus and the 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 65 

great men of the world at this point. They 
are sectional, but he is universal. They are 
identified with some particular people and age, 
and partake of their peculiarities. Even great 
Moses, who is honored and revered in three 
religions, is not only a Jew by birth, but he 
is also a Jew in feelings, habit and thought. 
Socrates rose high in his day, but he never 
rose above the Greek type of thought and 
character. Luther can never be understood 
if not studied as a German. Calvin, though 
exiled from his native land, lived and died 
a Frenchman. And our beloved Washing- 
ton can never be to another people what 
he is to Americans. The vision and influence 
of these choice spirits extend far beyond their 
nation and time, but they are not universal. 
But what they were to their particular people, 
place and age, Christ is to all. And this 
despite the dominant idea of his people. They 
thought he was to be a King, but it was to 
be emphatically a Jewish King; he was to 
reign over the world, but his throne, with its 
special privileges, was to be in Jerusalem. 
Every teacher, including his father and mother 
endeavored to impress him with this thought. 
Yet this young Hebrew carpenter so conquered 



66 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

the sectarianism about him that he rose above 
the walls of separation between Jew and 
Gentile as completely as if he had Hved on 
another planet. He is the one universal 
character, the one sole cosmopolitan. He was 
the ideal Jew, or they would not have tried 
to force their crown upon him; he is equally 
the ideal of the polished Greeks, who, when 
they see him in his beauty, forget their hatred 
of the Jew in their admiration of him. 
And the same is true when he is preached 
to the war-like Roman, the liberty-loving 
German, the dark-browed African, the clannish 
Chinaman, the progressive Japanese, the cul- 
tured Englishman, the elegant Frenchman, 
the sturdy Scotchman, and the wide-awake 
American. Each sees in him his ideal. Like 
the sun, he cannot be monopolized by any, 
but shines equally for all. 

COMPLETENESS OF HIS CHARACTER. 

The virtues just enumerated are not all that 
are fomid in his character. They are only 
specimens. All are there. Not a single gem 
is absent from the tiara of moral beauty 
which encircles his brow. And they are not 
only present, but they are perfectly blended. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 67 

Nothing is out of proportion; the symmetry 
is complete. There is no one-sidedness in 
him. No one virtue towered above the rest, 
but each was moderated and completed by its 
opposite grace. His character never lost its 
equilibrium, and hence never needed re-adjust- 
ment or modification. He was vivacious with- 
out levity; vigorous without violence; serious 
without melancholy; dignified without pride 
or presumption. He combined the strength 
of the lion with the meekness of the lamb, and 
the wisdom of the serpent with the harmless- 
ness of the dove. Every element of character 
finds in him the happiest harmony — harmony 
like that in the summer and winter, and in the 
day and night. 

Let the reader remember that this is wisdom 
and purity combined. The brainiest men are 
not ahvays the best ; and their friends frequently 
have to insist that their lack of moral worth 
should be atoned for by mental fibre. We are 
to see the genius as he soars in the heavens 
rather than the sinner as he walks on the earth. 
Byron could dwell among the stars, while 
his heart fed on carrion. Burns could sing 
like an angel, but, alas! he did not live like one. 
And Burr was brilliant but bad. Not so with 



68 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

the Christ. His heart is as pure as his head 
is clear. His life is without blot or blemish, 
and has neither parallel nor approach. And 
herein, perhaps more than at any other single 
point, is the seat of his power over men. In 
the French Revolution, when the mob, wild 
with rage, swept like a flood through the streets 
of Paris, destroying everything in its way, a 
well known man of pure and noble character, 
came into its presence and waved his hand for 
a hearing. The leader commanded a halt, 
and said, ^^ Soldiers, we are in the presence of 
a man who represents seventy years of noble 
Uving"; and the mob uncovered its head and 
listened. It was a great thing to say of Jesus, 
''Never man sjpoke like this man'^; but it is 
greater to say, ''Never man lived like this man.^' 

A FEW WITNESSES. 

We close by calling a few of the myriads 
of witnesses who have testified for him. Some 
are friends and some are foes, but as to his 
purity there is but one voice. Pilate's wife, 
with the seldom-erring instinct of woman, 
warned her husband in these words: "Have 
thou nothing to do with that just man/' And 
when Pilate, weak and wavering, delivered 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 00 

him up to be crucified, he washed his hands 
in the presence of the mob he feared, and said: 
'• I am innocent of the blood of this just person." 
Judas, the betrayer, brought back the thirty 
pieces of silver and cast them at the feet of 
those who gave it, saying: ''I have sinned 
in that I have betrayed innocent blood.'' The 
centurion and soldiers who executed him 
said, "Truly this was the son of God." 

Besides these who saw him in the flesh, let 
us hear others of a later day. Rousseau: ''If 
the life and death of Socrates are those of a 
sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a 
God." Napoleon: ''I know men; and I tell 
you that Jesus Christ is not a man." Channing: 
''Jesus not only was, he is still, the Son of God, 
the Savior of the world." Strauss: "Christ 
represents within the religious sjDhere the highest 
point, beyond which posterity can never go." 
Jean Paul: "Jesus is the purest among the 
mighty, and the mightiest among the pure." 
Renan: "Whatever may be the surprises of 
the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. Re- 
pose now in thy glory, thy work is finished, 
thy divinity is established. A thousand times 
more living, a thousand times more loved 
since thy death, than during the days of thv 



70 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

course here below, thou shalt become the 
corner stone of humanity, in so much that 
to tear thy name from the world would be to 
shake it to its very foundations. No more 
shall men distinguish between thee and God.'' 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST SEEN IN 
HIS RESURRECTION. 

Having seen the power of God manifested 
in the miracles of Christ, the knowledge of God 
in his wisdom, and the purity of God in his life, 
we might rest the claims of his divinity; but 
we wish to make certainty doubly sure by 
witnessing the climax of proof in his resurrec- 
tion from the dead. Paul hinges everything 
on the resurrection. ''If Christ be not raised, 
your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins" 
(I. Cor. XV. 17). This is the key to the whole 
question. If this greatest of all miracles is 
true, then there need be no question about the 
supernatural; but if false, we flight as well 
end the whole matter now and here and give 
up all hope. If he rose from the dead, Christi- 
anity is true; if not, it is false. 

CONCEDED FACTS. 

There are some important facts conceded 
by all, which should be noted in the beginning 
of this investigation. It is conceded that 

71 



72 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

Jesus of Nazareth lived at the time and place 
ascribed to him in the New Testament; that he 
was crucified in Jerusalem during the reign 
of Pontius Pilate; that his bod}^ was buried 
in Joseph's new tomb; that a great stone was 
laid at the mouth of the tomb; and that on the 
morning of the third day the body was gone. 

THE INFIDEL POSITION: THE BODY WAS STOLEN 
BY HIS DISCIPLES. 

On Sunday morning when it was discovered 
that the body was gone, the soldiers came into 
the city and reported the fact to the chief 
priests, and they called a council and gave 
large money to the soldiers, saying: ''Say ye 
his disciples came by night and stole him away 
while we slept ; and if this come to the governor's 
ears we will persuade him and save you. 
So they took the money and did as they were 
taught'' (Matt, xxviii. 11-15). 

In support of this position they could com- 
mand the testimony of sixty witnesses, an ample 
number, who were on the ground — the right 
place — for the purpose of guarding the tomb. 

But before we hear them, let us remember 
that three of the strongest motives ever used 
by Satan for the corruption of a witness were 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 73 

used in this case: disgrace, bribery and death. 
Every soldier would shrink from the disgrace 
of having a body committed to his care stolen; 
money has made its millions swerve from 
the right ; and all men in their normal condition 
love life, and a Roman guard forfeited his own 
when he allowed his prisoner to escape. 

Let us hear these witnesses. Behold sixty 
bronzed veterans filing into the witness-box 
and each saying that the body was stolen while 
they were guarding the tomb. This is an un- 
reasonable story. If they had said a large force 
overpowered them and took the body from 
them, it would, other things being equal, 
have been reasonable. But it is not think- 
able that sixty veteran soldiers, familiar with 
guard duty, in charge of a safe filled w^ith valu- 
ables, would not only sleep — all of them at 
the same time — but would sleep so soundly 
that thieves could rifle the safe and escape 
with the treasure without waking one of 
them. This is unbelievable. 

But bad as this is, it is not the worst. Ask 
these gentlemen, what they were doing at the 
time of the theft, and they say they were 
sleeping. This adds absurdity to unreason- 
ableness. If they were asleep, how did they 



74 . FIRST PRINCIPLES 

know that the body was stolen? and if stolen, 
how did they know t.hat the disciples stole it? 
Their story is false on its face; and such wit- 
nesses would be ruled out of any court of justice. 
But the tissue of absurdities connected with 
their story is not yet complete. If the body 
was stolen, why did they not require the timid 
disciples to bring it back? One pubHc exhibi- 
tion of that mangled form — so well known — 
would have settled at one fell blow, and for 
all time, the story of Jesus and the resuriection. 

THE CHRISTIAN POSITION: GOD RAISED 
HIM FROM THE GRAVE. 

The witnesses in this case are more than five 
hundred, and they saw him frequently during 
a period of forty days after the resurrection, 
and talked and ate with him. The number 
is ample, as in the other case, and their means of 
knowledge all that could he desired. And in 
addition to this, and of the most vital import- 
ance, remember that there were no motives for 
them to testify falsely. But, on the other 
hand, everything which is hard to bear, and 
which men instinctively try to avoid: shame, 
persecution and death, stood out luridly before 
them as their inevitable fate. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 75 

The truth must be somewhere in this tri- 
lemma: they were deceived, they were deceivers, 
or they were rehable witnesses. 

1. Were they deceived? 1. Their mental con- 
dition forbade deception. Every one of them, 
including those keen-visioned women, expected 
an earthly kingdom. That was why the mother 
of James and John requested the chief places for 
her sons ; that w^as why Peter and others, think- 
ing all was lost, returned to their fishing boats ; 
that was why the two disciples, on their way to 
Emmaus, were so sad and hopeless. And up 
to the time of his ascension this thought clung 
to them: ''Lord, wilt thou at this time restore 
the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts i. 6). The 
resurrection of Jesus was as far from their 
thoughts as his visible appearance is from the 
thought of the reader of these lines at this time. 
2. They saw him too often to be deceived. I 
have been the pastor of this church fourteen 
years. Suppose I should disappear, and be 
gone for three days ; after which, for a period of 
forty days, I should nieet and mingle with five 
hundred of them, talking and eating with them, 
would they not know me? This is the parallel 
as to Christ, and it nmst carry conviction to 
the heart of every unbiased reader. 



76 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

'' But did they not doubt?" (Matt, xxviii. 17). 
Yes, some of them did doubt. But what of 
it? That fact makes them the more rehable 
as witnesses. It shows that they were not the 
credulous dupes some would have us believe them 
to be, but honest searchers after truth, ready 
and determined to sift all the facts regarding 
the resurrection. And let it never be forgotten 
that after this examination their doubts van- 
ished. Thomas, the chief doubter, after the 
fullest possible examination of the case, cried, 
' ' My Lord and my God ! ' ' (John xx. 28) . And 
of the others, after a similar investigation, it 
was said, ''And none of the disciples durst 
ask him, who art thou? knowing that it was 
the Lord'' (John xxi. 1-12). 

2. Were they deceivers f 1. There was no 
motive for deception, and sane men like these 
always act from motive. No one had offered 
them money as they did the soldiers ; and there 
was no popularity to gain, for it now looked 
like a lost cause. On the other hand they had 
all to lose. But in spite of this, if he did not 
rise, they told a deliberate falsehood, and one 
diametrically opposed to their every interest both 
for time and for eternity. Would you do such 
a thing as this? 2. They gave the highest 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 77 

possible evidence of their honesty. As soon 
as they began to preach the resurrection their 
persecutions began. They were thrust into 
prison, but released with the command to 
desist from their preaching. Then they were 
scourged. Soon Stephen became the first 
martyr, and with his dying breath he declared 
that he saw the risen Christ standing on the 
right hand of God. Next James was beheaded, 
and Peter w^as waiting for the day of execu- 
tion. And thus it continued till nearly all of 
them were slain; but not one of them changed 
his testimony; not a single one of them turned 
'^ states evidence." 

3. They were reliable witnesses. The truth 
must be in this third horn of the trilemma, 
for there is no other reasonable explanation 
of their conduct. 

Greenleaf, perhaps the highest authority 
on e^ddence that ever lived, has thoroughly 
sifted this evidence, and here is his conclusion: 
^' Let the witnesses be compared mth them- 
selves, \^^th each other, and ^\ith surrounding 
facts and circumstances; and let their testimony 
be sifted as if it were given in a court of justice 
on the side of the adverse party, the witnesses 
being subjected to a vigorous cross examination. 



78 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

The result, it is confidently believed, will be 
an undoubting conviction of their integrity, 
ability, and truth. In the course of such an 
examination the undesigned coincidences will 
multiply upon us at every step in our progress ; 
the probability of the veracity of the witnesses 
and of the reality of the occurrences which 
they relate will increase until it acquires, for 
all practical purposes, the value and force of 
demonstration." 
Let us glance at some 

CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY. 

1. The influence of the resurrection on the 
disciples. It must be sadly confessed that be^ 
fore the resurrection his disciples were anything 
but ideal followers of their Master. They were 
slow to learn, and selfish; and in his hour of 
sore need one betrayed him and others forsook 
him and fled. And when he was crucified what 
would one naturally expect of them? Would 
we not expect them, crushed in spirit and dis- 
appointed in hope, to disperse and sink into 
oblivion, ''leaving only the record of another 
prophet's failure to be reckoned with that of 
Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, and similar 
sporadic flashes of Jewish fanaticism?" But 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 79 

we find nothing of the kind. Those arrant 
cowards become bold as hons, defying both the 
rehgious venom of the Jew and the pohtical 
rage of the Roman. Their soul-vision is clear, 
and their voices ring out, clear-toned like 
trumpets, as they proclaim the sweet story of 
their risen Lord. All this must be accounted 
for. Every effect has a cause, and this effect 
could, ''no more have arisen out of nothing, 
or come about by chance, than our great 
modern railroad system could have arisen 
spontaneously in a land where iron was un- 
knowm, or have been developed without the 
brain of a Watt and the genius of a Stephen- 
son." 

2. The triumph of the truth in the face of 
opposition. Ballard forcefully says: ''If we can 
imagine a lion, a tiger and a wolf uniting in 
desperate effort to destroy a lamb — and failing, 
we should but have a fair parallel to that 
which actually happened in human society 
at the commencement of the Christian era. 
The practical alliance between Jewish hate, 
Roman might, and Greek subtlety, against the 
infant Christian faith is absolutely without 
parallel in history." But in the face of this 
mighty alliance the new doctrine spread with 



80 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

wonderful rapidity. The first sermon gained 
three thousand converts; a second sermon 
five thousand; and soon these converts were 
no longer counted, but referred to as multitudes, 
so that in the brief record of the book of Acts 
not less than half a milHon Christians are made. 
And within twenty-five years after the cruci- 
fixion the unhesitating belief in the Resur- 
rection was established among all Christians 
throughout the then known world. 

Many of these converts were from the Jews, 
including priests, and other great men like 
Saul of Tarsus. And if the reader thinks men 
of this kind are easily converted, let him try 
to induce some modern Rabbi to accept the 
Christ. 

And as to the persecutions encountered in 
this work, neither the language of men nor 
angels can do justice to its horror, or to the 
heroism of those who endured it. But a single 
quotation from Lecky must suffice : ' ' We read 
of Christians bound in chains of red-hot iron, 
while the stench of the unconsumed bodies rose 
in a suffocating cloud to heaven ; of others torn 
to the very bone by shells or hooks of iron*, 
of holy virgins given over to the lust of glad- 
iators, or the mercies of the pander; of two 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 81 

hundred and twenty seven sent on one occasion 
to the mines, each with one leg severed by a hot 
iron, and an eye scooped from the socket; of 
fires so slow that the victims writhed for hours 
in their agony ; of tortures prolonged and varied 
through entire days. For the love of their 
Divine Master, for the cause which they believed 
to be true, men and even weak girls, endured 
these things, when one word would have freed 
them from their sufferings." 

3. The Lord's Supper. On the night of his 
betrayal the Savior instituted this Supper 
(Matt. xxvi. 26-30), and from that day to this 
it has been observed wherever Christianity 
has gone. In fact this institution has always 
been part of the Christian religion. It is a sig- 
nificant fact that wherever this bloodless feast 
has been spread, there bloody sacrifices have 
ceased, and the sense of sin has been greatly 
intensified. When the sun rises even men put 
out the other lights; and so when the sacrifice 
of Calvary is made, all minor sacrifices are 
discontinued. 

What is the cause which produced this uni- 
que institution? It could not have been borrow- 
ed from Judaism, for it ignores the very heart 
of their memorial rite: the bloodv sacrifice. 



82 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

It would also shock the Jews to have the 
Messiah represented in any sense as a sacrifice. 
Neither could it have come from Greek or Roman 
mythology, for there was nothing there to 
suggest it. And if Christ did not rise from 
the grave the disciples would not observe it, 
for in that case it was the proclamation of a 
failure on the part of their Lord. But they 
did observe it, and wherever they went preaching 
'^ Jesus and the resurrection," this memorial 
feast was made a prominent part of the wor- 
ship of the churches which they established. 

But the strangest thing is yet to be said, viz. : 
that this custom arose on the very spot, and 
immediately following the time of the cruci- 
fixion. Ebrard says that '^in the whole sphere 
of criticism there is no absurdity more un- 
critical than the idea that a rite which univer- 
sally prevailed should have grown up acci- 
dentally and gradually, especially a rite of 
such marked pecuHarity. '' But if we accept 
the New Testament account of the origin, 
purpose and promulgation, then all is simple 
and reasonable. 

4. The Lord's Day. From the beginning 
(Gen. ii. 3) the Sabbath day was sacred. But 
it received an added sanctit}^ when the Jews 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 83 

made it commemorative of their deliverance 
from Egyptian bondage (Deut. v. 15). Men nat- 
urally love and venerate ancient customs, often 
simply because they are ancient. But this day 
is not only hoary with age, but it commemo- 
rated two of the grandest events in the history 
of the world; yet it gives place to the Lord's 
Day, and becomes commemorative of two 
grander events: the new creation in Christ, and 
deliverance from sin. And this monument, 
like the Supper, began in Jerusalem, and just 
one WTek after the resurrection of the Christ. 
It would be absolutely impossible to induce 
the American people to observe the fourth of 
June instead of the fourth of July in commemo- 
ration of the Declaration of Independence; and 
it would be equally impossible to induce them 
to so observe the fourth of July, if no such 
Declaration ever took place. Yet the best 
people of the world for nineteen centuries 
have been observing the Lord's Day : have rear- 
ed a monument in memory of an event which 
never occurred, if so be that Christ rose not. 
The tall white shaft, the highest monument 
in the world, which lifts its pinnacle into the 
clouds over Washington City, could never 
have been built if Washington had not been 



84 FIBST PRINCIPLES 

the savior of his people; neither could these 
two towering monuments: the Lord^s Supper 
and the Lord^s Day, have had their glorious 
history and sacred significance if Christ had 
not been '^declared the Son of God with power 
by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. i. 4). 
It is said that Charlemagne at his own request 
was buried in a sitting posture. Clothed in 
royal purple and ermine, with his crown on his 
head and his sceptre in his hand. Years after- 
ward the tomb was opened, but alas! little 
was left of his imperial glory. The crown had 
fallen from his bleached brow, the sceptre lay 
in the dust at his feet, and his royal robes had 
rotted about him. Not so with King Jesus. 
God had said that his body should not be left 
in the grave, and the Holy One should not see 
corruption; and so on the morning of the third 
day he burst the bars of the tomb and came 
forth, bringing life and immortality to light 
through the gospel; and now lives and reigns 
and rules as the Lord of lords and the King 
of kings. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FAITH. 

Having established beyond a reasonable 
doubt the divinity of Christ, we next examine 
in detail the steps leading to salvation in him. 
We begin with the first step, Faith. 

WHAT IS FAITH? 

It has two meanings, a narrow and a broad 
one. The narrow meaning is the belief 
of testimony. No testimonj^, no faith, is 
one of the world's imiversal laws. Where 
testimony begins, there faith begins, and 
where testimony ends, faith ends. To believe 
without testimony is not faith, but credulity. 
We can as easily see without light or hear 
without sound as believe without testimony. 

But this is only its primary meaning. When 
appUed to the religious life we see it in its 
broad, full sense. Hear an inspired definition: 
''Faith is the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. i. 11). 
The word rendered "substance'' means that 
which stands under a structure, as its support 

85 



86 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

or foundation. Hence, faith is the foundation 
on which the things we hope for stand. The 
evidence of things not seen is the assurance 
that such things do exist. As we look forward 
to the beautiful temple of Hope, secure from 
every storm, and backward through the dim 
and shadowy past and see it, though invisible; 
or peer into the tangled present and behold 
God's hand leading and shielding at every 
step, we realize something of what faith is. 
It is the mighty prop on which the past, the 
present and the future all rest. 

There is an intellectual and a moral or spirit- 
ual aspect of faith. The intellectual is simply 
the belief of testimony, but the spiritual is 
such a belief as revolutionizes the life by 
turning us to God and good, and lifting us 
up to a high and holy plane of living, and 
broadening our vision so that we can see the 
spiritual as well as the material, and eternity 
as well as time. 

HOW IS FAITH PRODUCED? 

On this subject there has been much hurtful 
teaching by theologians. It has been taught 
that man, being totally depraved, has no 
ability to believe, and therefore must wait 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 87 

for God's good time, when, in some miraculous 
way, he will give him faith. He has been 
told that he is as dead spiritually as Lazarus 
was physically, and that he can no more exercise 
a moral faculty without special divine aid, 
than Lazarus could rise from the grave with- 
out the almighty power of the Savior. The 
impression has been made that God has an 
immense storage battery in the heavens, and 
when he wills he touches it and flashes faith 
into the hearts of men much as we shock 
them with electricity. And so they are taught 
to pray for it, and expect it to come to them 
directly and irresistibly. If this is true, there 
is no such thing as hirnian responsibility, 
and God can not be just and condemn man 
for unbelief. 

But let us thank God that this baneful 
theory, now fast taking its flight from the 
haunts of men (heaven hasten its going!) 
is false. If faith is the beUef of testimony, 
then testimony must precede it, and man 
must possess the power to examine this testi- 
mony. The jury is not asked for a verdict 
without testimony. Their faith in the guilt 
or innocence of the prisoner comes not in 
some mysterious and independent manner, 



88 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 



but according to the laws of the mind. And 
if one has not the power to exercise these 
mental powers, he is not eligible to jury service, 
and neither is he amenable to law. This is 
the clear, strong voice of Reason; and, as 
is ever the case, it is in perfect accord with 
that of Revelation. Let us, therefore, have a 
few Scriptures in proof of this declaration. 

'' Neither pray I for these alone, but for 
them also who shall believe on me through 
their word" (John xvii. 20). The Savior 
had been praying for his apostles, and now 
his great, loving heart looks forward and 
embraces the vast army of believers yet to 
come, who would believe on him through 
their word. And if our faith come not through 
their word — the gospel — we are not included 
in that prayer, 

''Many other signs truly did Jesus, which 
are not written in this book, but these are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing 
ye might have life through his name'' (John xx. 
30, 31). From this fine passage we get three 
important points: (1.) faith comes by hear- 
ing the gospel; (2.) we are not to believe in 
dogmas, theories, speculations of men, etc., 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 89 

but in Christ; (3.) the purpose of this faith 
is to give us hfe. 

"Peter rose up and said, Men and brethren, 
ye know that a good while ago God made 
choice among us that the Gentiles by my 
mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and 
believe" (Acts xv. 7). Language could not 
be clearer than this. If God chose that the 
Gentiles should hear the gospel and believe, 
then we should not expect faith independent 
of the gospel. But this Scripture is specially 
important because it is a part of the account 
of the conversion of Cornelius and his house- 
hold, where there was a supernatural out- 
pouring of the Holy Spirit. But Peter teaches 
that their faith was not the result of this 
miraculous gift of the Spirit, but of the Word 
which he preached to them. 

''These were more noble than those in 
Thessalonica, in that they received the word 
with all readiness of mind, searching the 
Scriptures daily, whether these things were 
so. Therefore many of them believed" (Acts 
xvii. 11, 12). The Thessalonians rejected the 
truth, and organized a rough mob to resist it. 
But the Bereans ''received the word with 
all readiness of mind''; and they searched 



90 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

the Scriptures like miners search for gold; 
and this they did daily, giving it a continuous 
hearing. ^'Therefore many of them believed." 
Here we see the sure highway of faith : an honest 
heart, a candid hearing, and a searching in- 
vestigation. 

''So, then, faith coineth by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God" (Rom. x. 17). 
This is so plain that it is hazardous to try 
to make it plainer. If it said that faith comes 
by feehng, or by the direct operation of the 
Spirit, we would so teach. But it says it comes 
by hearing the word of God, and this is the end 
of controversy to the man who believes. 

THE SCOPE OF FAITH. 

It stretches from the cradle to the grave, 
and is present at almost every step in the 
pilgrimage from the one to the other. It 
enlarges the horizon of the senses. If we 
were confined to the sphere of these, how 
circumscribed life would be. It would not 
be as broad as that of the animals about us, 
for their instincts are stronger than ours. 
But we can believe. In infancy, as we begin 
life's journey, it is by faith. Having little 
instinct, and no reason or experience, our 



FIRST PraXCIPLES 91 

only guide is faith in rnotJu^r. She must teach 
us about nature and her stern laws — how 
fire will burn, water will drown, knives will cut, 
and poison will kill. And when we enter the 
schoolroom, faith in the teacher is our guide;. 
But for this we could not learn the alphabet 
and multiplication table, and would never 
know the joys of literary lif(; or experience 
the science of numbers. All the; wealth of 
liistory, the beauty of the classics, and the 
licights and depths of philosophy would forever 
i-(!main veiled to us. And in business life faith 
ill our fellow man is guide. It is the working 
principle in commercial life. Ninety-nine; per 
cent of modern business is done through checks. 
'We buy goods we have never seen, and sell 
them to men who are strangers to us. 

In every bill of goods we buy, and in every 
draft we draw, w(; have to trust some one. 
If faith in the commercial world should be 
destroyed today, the wheels of traffic would 
stop and there would be universal bankruptcy 
in loss than a year. It is the mutual faith 
of husband and wif(^ that makes home possible. 
Cut the faith principle, and the home, and 
all society would fall to pieces like beads 
when the string Is cut. And but for faith, the 



92 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

state could not stand, and the nation would 
fall. Faith, therefore, is not an arbitrary 
thing, but it is rather that which restores 
man to the state of his primitive integrity. 
But its scope includes much more than 
the practical things of every-day life. It is 
so vast that it almost staggers us when we con- 
template it. With F. D. Power we can say: 
'^ Wider than the earth, broader than the sea, 
longer than all time, stretching back into the 
eternal past and down through the eternal 
future, is the area of faith. By this we live 
in every age and clime, hold converse with 
men of every nation, and become contemporary 
with all generations. By this \ye know how 
worlds were made; how man came into being 
under the hand of his Maker ; how the patriarchs, 
fathers and prophets lived and loved and 
suffered and died; how Christ was born of 
the Virgin Mary, taught, worked miracles, 
gave himself on the cross, came forth from 
the tomb, and ascended; how the gospel was 
preached, and men believed, repented and 
obeyed. Further, by faith we get the vision 
of unborn ages, the ransomed coming to Zion 
with songs and everlasting joy on their heads, 
the new heavens and the new earth wherein 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 93 

dwelleth righteousness. Taith is the evidence 
of things not seen.' Well does Toplady call 
it the 'eye of the soul/ For, as we stand by 
the deep chasm called the grave, it bridges 
it, and in an instant we are in the land where 
there are no graves, and the loved one is ours 
once more. The astronomer from the obser- 
vatory in his home looks into the upper depths 
and sees thousands of shining worlds. He 
climbs the mountain-top, and the number is 
multiplied. Still unsatisfied, he goes into the 
world's greatest observatory and with its most 
powerful glass looks again and finds them mul- 
plied almost infinitely. But has he seen all? 
No. But here he must stop, not for want 
of worlds to see, but for lack of vision to 
see them. But not so the Christian. When 
the eye of sense fails him, by the lens of faith 
he looks into the invisible things of God and 
revels in the glory of heaven. Faith is glorified 
reason; the imagination in its luminous hours." 

THE OBJECT OF FAITH. 

What we believe is far more important than 
how we believe. The pipe through wJiich the 
water is brought is important, but not so much 
so as the fountain from which it comes. If the 



94 FIRST prinOiples 

fountain be pure, then health and happiness 
are produced, but if impure, disease and death. 
It is not strange, therefore, that the Bible 
holds up Jesus as the object of faith. ''And 
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me" (John xii. 32). ''As Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
so must the son of man be lifted up; that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have eternal life. For God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever beliveth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 
14-16). "Let all the house of Israel know 
assuredly that God hath made that same 
Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and 
Christ^' (Acts ii. 36). "Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy 
house" (Acts xvi. 31). 

Man loves the concrete rather than the 
abstract, and he is never so strong as when 
the guiding principle of his life is embodied 
in a mighty personality. See this exemplified 
in the heroes who followed Wellington and 
Napoleon, and Lee and Grant, to danger and 
death rather than desert their leaders. By 
nature we are hero-worshipers. Doctrine, even 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 95 

I 

though it come from God, and principles, though 
born in heaven, are never at their best until 
associated with a magnetic leader. This is 
why the Father has put everything spiritual 
in the Christ, so that Christ is Christianity 
and Christianity is Christ. ''In him dwelletli 
all the fullness of the God-head bodily, and 
ye are complete in him who is the head of all 
principality and power" (Col. ii. 9, 10). And 
this is why the apostles in their preaching 
would know nothing but Jesus Christ and him 
crucified. And this is why the church under 
their ministry swept over Europe and Asia 
like an army with banners. And this is why 
our preaching has been so blessed of God. 
We have held up Christ instead of dogma; 
and preached the gospel rather than the philos- 
ophies, speculations and traditions of men. 

Radium, the new substance now so much 
discussed in the scientific world, gives off light 
without heat, and thus symbolizes intellectual 
faith. There is often cold intellectuahty without 
warmth, love, or spiritual life. Light and heat 
should be combined. The pulpit and the pen 
should be knowledge aflame with love. 

The faith that saves is not a mere mental 
assent. Neither is it a faith strong enough 



96 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

to make men tremble, if they stop with the 
trembhng. Paul once so preached before Felix 
that he trembled, but he was not saved. 
"The devils also believe and tremble," but 
they remain devils still. It must be a faith 
that leads to penitence, obedience, and a new 
life in the Saviour. As the sick man puts 
himself unreservedly in the hands of the physi- 
cian, ready to do what he commands and 
refrain from what he forbids, so must the 
sin-sick soul surrender to the great physician, 
and all will be well. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



REPENTANCE. 



Repentance, the second step on the way to 
pardon, has a prominent place in the gospel 
of the Saviour. It has been called the goddess 
of the erring, whose tearful voice is ever whis- 
pering: Salvation from sin, not in sin. 

WHAT IS REPENTANCE? 

1. It is not sorrow. Many emotional people 
seem to think that when the heart is convulsed 
and the tears flow freely, they have repented. 
But this is not necessarily true. Such emotions 
may be connected with genuine repentance, 
and they may not. Some men exercise repen- 
tance and never weep, and some weep and 
never repent. Sorrow is an essential element of 
repentance, but in itself it is not repentance. 
The alphabet is an essential part of an educa- 
tion, but he who only knows these twenty-six 
characters when he sees them, but does not 
know how to combine them into words and 
sentences, is not educated. Herod (Matt. xiv. 

1-11) made a hasty and wicked promise to the 

. 97 



98 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

daughter of Herodias, and when he found that 
it involved the head of John the Baptist, 
he was ''sorry." But he did not repent, but 
went forth in spite of his sorrow, and became 
a murderer in the sight of God and men. 

2. It is not sorrow and confession combined. 
The sorrow of Judas so wrought upon him that 
he ''brought again the thirty pieces of silver 
to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have 
sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent 
blood" (Matt, xxvii. 3, 4); but he did not 
repent. Instead, he "departed, and went and 
hanged himself." Here is confession coupled 
with sorrow, and still no repentance. Solo- 
mon says, "He that covereth his sins shall 
not prosper: but w^hoso confesseth and for- 
saketh them shah have mercy" (Erov. xxviii. 13). 

Judas uncovered his sins, but he did not 
forsake them. His was remorse rather than 
repentance. 

3. It is not godly sorrow. "Now I rejoice, 
not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sor- 
rowed to repentance: for ye were made soriy 
after a godly manner, that ye might receive dam- 
age by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh 
repentance to salvation not to be repented of; 
but the sorrow of the world worketh death" 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 99 

(II. Cor. vii. 9, 10). If godly sorrow worketli 
repentance, it is not itself repentance, but 
its cause, and sustains to repentance the rela- 
tionship of cause to effect. 

4. It is not reformation. There can be no 
repentance without reformation, but there may 
be reformation without repentance. A wicked 
and worthless young man might find his evil 
ways the onl}^ objection urged by the parents 
against his marriage to their daughter, and 
there might be temporary reformation in order 
to overcome this objection, but no true repen- 
tance. In his case there would be no sorrow 
for sin — that sorrow that worketh r.epentance 
to salvation. 

5. What, then, is repentance? If it is not 
sorrow; if it is not sorrow coupled with con- 
fession; if it is not godly sorrow; and if it is not 
reformation, what is it? It is sorrow for sin 
resulting in reformation of life: it is ceasing 
to do evil and learning to do well (Isa. i. 16, 17). 

Let us see this definition in the light of 
two illustrations. The Ninevites were a wicked 
people, and God sent Jonah to preach to them. 
They heard him; they believed what he preached ; 
they humbled themselves in the dust, fasted 
and put on sackcloth; and they turned from 



i.ofC. 



100 FmST PRINCIPLES 

their sins, and God forgave them (Matt. xii. 41 ; 
Jonah iii. 1-10). 

The story of the prodigal son also is a lucid 
illustration. He left home and ''spent his 
substance in riotous living"; he came down to 
wretchedness and want, and while sorrowing 
over his sin he determined to arise and go to 
his father and say unto him, ''Father, I have 
sinned against heaven and before thee, and 
am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make 
me as one of thy hired servants. . . . And 
he arose and went" (Luke xv. 11-24). His 
sorrow led to penitence, and his penitence 
ripened into reformation, and he was saved. 

That the reader may know that this con- 
clusion is in harmony with the best scholarship, 
we will hear Isaac Errett: "The Greek word 
translated 'repentance' indicates change — con- 
version. It imports change of mind or dispo- 
sition, and that, too, for the better. We have, 
indeed, more than one Greek word translated 
by this term 'repentance.' One of them indi- 
cates a change, whether for better or worse. 
But that word expressing the will of God con- 
cerning us, uniformly in the New Testament, 
denotes a change for the better. We are 
sometimes asked what is the difference between 



FIRST PRIXriPLES 101 

faith and repentance, since they are both expres- 
sive of change? We reply that the idea of 
change is not contained in the word faith, 
although it usually implies a change; it is 
rather expressive of rest, of trust, of simple 
confidence. But the word 'repentance' is 
expressive of change. Faith respects that 
which is true; repentance that which is 
right. Faith looks away from falsehood and 
error to the truth; repentance looks away from 
sin to righteousness and holiness. It is 'repent- 
ance from dead works to serve the living God' 
(Heb. vi. 1)." 

WHY MEN SHOULD REPENT. 

1. Because God commands it. ''The times of 
this ignorance God winked at; but now com- 
mandeth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 
xvii. 31). There is but one safe thing to do 
with a commandment of God, and that is to 
obey it. It must not be resisted, ignored, 
neglected, or trifled with. It is Jehovah who 
commands, and all his commandments are 
righteous, and he has the power to punish 
disobedience. 

2. Because of God's goodness. "Despisest 
thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance 



102 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

and long-suffering; not knowing that the good- 
ness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" 
(Rom. ii. 4). God is not only a King to com- 
mand, and a Judge to inflict the penalty of 
disobedience, but he is a loving Father; yea, 
more, he is father and mother in one (Isa. Ixvi. 
13), and his '^goodness and forbearance and 
longsuffering " will be extended to all. Beecher 
says: ^'When a man undertakes to repent 
toward his fellow man, it is repenting straight 
up a precipice; when he repents toward law, 
it is repenting in the crocodile's jaws; when 
he repents toward public sentiment, it is throw- 
ing himself into a thicket of brambles and thorns ; 
but when he repents towards God, he repents 
toward all love and delicacy. God receives 
the soul as the sea the bather, to return it again, 
purer and whiter than he took it." 

3. Because of God's warnings. ''Suppose ye 
that these Galileans were sinners above all 
the Galileans because they suffered such things ? 
I tell you. Nay ; but, except ye repent, ye shall 
all Ukewise perish" (Luke xiii. 2, 3). All have 
sinned, and, therefore, all must repent. The 
king on his throne, the beggar at his gate, the 
mother and her child, the father and his son, 
the murderer, the slanderer, the pirate, the 



FIRST PRINCIPLES * 103 

respectable, the poor wretch covered with crime 
— all have sinned and come short of the glory 
of God. But he warns all, and if we will hear 
and heed, he forgives; if not, we perish. Men 
often in hot passion punish and then warn. In 
the home — how sad that it is so — the parent's 
blow is frequently first and the word of warning 
follows. This is the rule with despots and 
tyrants, especially when the rebellious subject 
is weak. They crush him first and reason with 
him later. There is no previous warning, and 
no time for repentance. Not so with our God. 
He will not cut down the fruitless tree that 
cumbereth the ground until it has been dug 
about and dunged (Luke xiii. 8); he will not 
drown a wicked world until it is fully warned of 
the impending doom; Sodom shall not perish 
until righteous Lot has lived within her borders ; 
Nineveh shall not fall until Jonah has preached 
in her streets ; Babylon shall not be crushed till 
Daniel has lived in her midst; and Jerusalem 
shall not be ground under the tyrant's heel until 
she has received a thousand warnings. How 
many warnings from the Bible, from the pulpit 
and press, from sickness and sorrow, and from 
innumerable other sources, have been received 



104 FIKST PRINCIPLES 

by all, and how shall we escape if we heed 
them not? 

4. Because the impure can not enter heaven. 
" Who shall ascend into the hill of the 
Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? 
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart" 
(Ps. xxiv. 3, 4); "Blessed are the pure in heart, 
for they shall see [enjoy] God" (Matt. v. 8). 
Heaven is a place of purity, and none but the 
pure can be happy there. If the ignorant are 
ill at ease among the learned, and the coarse 
among the refined, how could the sinner, 
unforgiven, be happy among the redeemed? 
If by almighty power the Lord should suddenly 
transfer the profligate, the blasphemer and the 
drunkard to heaven without repentance, heaven 
would be hell to them, and they would struggle 
to escape from its pure atmosphere. As the 
diseased eye is pained by the light, so the 
impure in heart would flee from God. Heaven 
is a prepared place for a prepared people. 

FRUITS OF REPENTANCE. 

John, evidently with doubt in his mind as to 
the purity of purpose of some who came to 
be baptized, called upon them to '^ bring forth 
fruits meet for repentance" (Matt. iii. 8). This 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 105 

was right; for genuine repentance, like a good 
tree, will always bear good fruit. What are 
some of these fruits? 

1. Confessing sin. ''Wash me thoroughly 
from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my 
sin; for I acknowledge my transgressions, and 
my sin is ever before me'.' (Ps. U. 3, 4). ''If 
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all' 
unrighteousness" (I. John i. 9). "Father, I 
have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, 
and am no more worthy to be called thy son" 
(Luke XV. 21). Every one who truly repents 
is anxious to imitate the penitent prodigal 
and seek forgiveness in humble confession of 
sin. Until we are willing to do this, it is clear 
that we do not appreciate the heinous character 
of sin. 

2. Prayer for forgiveness. " And the publican, 
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as 
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, 
saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner" 
(Luke xviii. 13). The sight of sin always 
brings the soul to its knees. AVhen a child 
which loves its mother, discovers that it has 
broken her commandments and grieved her 
licartj it instinctively seeks her presence and 



106 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

prays her forgiveness. And how can the mother 
heart refuse? It is said of the big-hearted 
Lincoln that he issued standing orders for the 
admission of every messenger who sought his 
aid in saving a hfe. However great the throng 
who waited on him, such a messenger was 
admitted first. And regardless of the standing 
of those who sought an audience — though they 
were Senators, Congressmen, Cabinet Officers, 
foreign representatives, and millionaires — all 
had to wait on him who sought the life of 
some condemned man. ''If ye, then, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your Father 
which is in heaven give good things to them 
that ask him?'' (Matt. vh. 11). 

3. Restitution. No amount of profession and 
emotion and agony will avail without restitu- 
tion, provided restitution be within our power. 
In Lev. i. 1-7 this is clearly taught. (Please 
stop and read this passage.) And in Matt. 
V. 23. 24, the Saviour teaches that we are to 
right our wrongs against man before we offer 
sacrifice to God: ''Therefore if thou bring thy 
gift to the altar, and there rememberest that 
thy brother hath aught against thee; leave 
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy 



FIRST IMUXCIPLKS 107 

way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and 
then come and offer thy gift." Sin-offerings 
without repentance are worthless, but not more 
so than repentance without sin-offerings. Wh(Mi 
we sin against man we sin" against God, and 
we must first be reconciled to man before God 
will hear us. A man sins against the child of 
his neighbor. How can the matter be adjusted? 
He must first undo the wrong to the child 
before he can expect the forgiveness of the 
father. And man is God's child. The liar, 
therefore, must confess and correct his falsehood, 
the thief must restore the stolen goods, the 
fraudulent man must disgorge, and the hypocrite 
must reform, before we may expect the forgive- 
ness of the Father. Let Zaccheus be our 
example. (Luke xix. 8.) 

4. A new life. ''Therefore, if any man be 
in Christ he is a new creature: old things are 
passed away; behold, all things are become 
new" (IL Cor. vii. 17). F. D. Power puts this 
point most forcibly: ''There must be a godly 
walk and conversation. The man who formerly 
was a liar will now be known far and wide as 
a truthful man. The man given to dishonest 
practices will now show himself upright and 
reliable in all his transactions. The man who 



lOS FlHSr 1'K1\(MIMJ<:S 

aforetinio was profane, impious, unjust, inhu- 
man, given to ungodliness and wordlj^ lust, 
now lives soberly, righteously and godly. The 
man who once, like the prodigal, reveled in 
impiu'ity and drunkenness, is now proving him- 
self chaste and temperate. The soul that cared 
formerly only for the mad whirl of pleasure and 
worldliness finds delight now in things spiritual 
and divine. The world sees the reformation 
is genuine." Thus iimy we rise on stepping- 
stones of our dead selves to higher and holier 
things. And in this there is nothing base nor 
bitter. It is only good rising out of evil. It is 
the resurrection of purity from the grave of 
lust. It is darkness fleeing before the dawn. 
It is weakness clothing itself wiih. the strength 
of Jehovah. It is the prisoner, freed from 
shackles, bolts and bars, stepping forth a free 
man. As the water-lily, white and pure, and 
admired by all, rises from the black filth of 
the lake or bog, so the sweet flower of repen- 
tance springs from the bitter pangs of remem- 
bered wrongs, and ''is only the soul blossoming 
back to its better nature." 



CHAPTER IX. 



CONVERSION. 



But for the confusion and uncertainty created 
by the theologians, the searcher after truth, 
with his heart purified by faith and his hfe 
purified by repentance, would at once be 
baptized and enter fully into the Christian life. 
But the air is full of questions about Conver- 
sion, Change of Heart, and the like, and he is 
afraid that he is not fit for baptism; and so 
postpones it for the present, that he may look 
into these questions. He begins with the study 
of 

CONVERSION. 

This is a question of the greatest possible 
importance to every one, and it should be 
carefully studied. 

CLEARING THE GROUND. 

But, in order to such study, some difficul- 
ties must be removed. During the time of the 
apostles, and for two hundred years later, these 
difficulties did not exist. The gospel, as ''the 
power of God unto salvation" (Rom. i. IG), 

109 



110 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

was preached and men were saved. Near the 
close of the fourth century Satan sowed the 
seed of speculative theology, and the trouble 
began. Augustine espoused it, and it soon be- 
came a power for evil. He taught that becauee 
of the fall of Adam, all, even infants, were 
so depraved as to destroy the human will 
and leave them the helpless servants of sin. 
This being true, conversion was necessarily 
miraculous, God's power in it being irresistible, 
and this power was exerted only on the elect. 
At first thought it seems incredible that such a 
theory could be accepted by any one. But 
many like the mysterious,, especially in rehgion. 
Enshroud a subject in fog, and let it stand like a 
mountain wrapped in mist, half revealed and 
half concealed, and their imaginations are 
impressed, and the heart is filled with holy (?) 
awe. Then the priest has his feast. 

1. All men hear the gospel, hut all are not 
saved; hence this miraculous power is exerted in 
behalf of some, and withheld from others. The 
Saviour, in the parable of the sower (Matt. 
xiii. 1-9, 18-23), fully explains this matter. 
Some seed fell on the wayside, some on stony 
ground, some among thorns, and some on good 
ground. In some cases there was no fruit, in 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 1 1 1 

others it was slight, and in the last an abundant 
harvest. This was not because a miraculous 
power was sometimes exerted, and sometimes 
withheld, but because of variety in soil and 
circumstances. The seed, which is the word 
of God (Luke viii. 11), was the same in each 
case, but the soil, which is the human heart, was 
not. This explanation, simple, sound, and 
philosophical, should commend itself to all. 

2. Sinners are dead in sin, and being dead, 
it requires miraculous power to bring them 
back to life. ''How shall we that are dead to 
sin live any longer therein?" (Eph. ii. 1). Here 
the two words ''dead" and "hve" are applied 
to the same individual, showing that he was 
dead in one sense and aHve in another. If, then, 
when Christians are dead "to" sin, they are 
able still to do wrong, sinners, when dead "in" 
sin, are able to do right. The fact is that total 
depravity, except in rare cases (Eph. iv. 19), 
is a myth of man's theology, and not the teach- 
ing of the Bible. "Evil men and seducers shall 
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being 
deceived" (XL Tim. iii. 13). If men are totally 
depraved, it is impossible for them to wax worse. 
We all possess both good and evil (Rom. vii. 21- 
23), and salvation is the development of the 



112 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

good, and damnation is the development of 
the evil. None are so good but that they may 
become better, and few are so bad that they 
may not become worse. 

3. A Bible example. The case of Lydia (Acts 
xvi. 14, 15) is confidently relied on as proof of 
this theory. Luke says that Paul preached to 
her, and that the Lord '^opened" her heart, 
which is regarded as proof that it was so bad 
that miraculous power was essential to her 
conversion. But this is a slander on a good 
woman, for there is no proof that her heart was 
so bad that it could not be opened by ordinary 
means. 1. She was, like Cornelius, a worshiper, 
of God, and his prayers and alms were accept- 
able to God. 2. When called away from home 
she took her religion with her — a mighty proof 
of its genuineness. 3. She closed her store 
on the Sabbath day, regardless of the fact that 
her rivals kept theirs open — another weighty 
proof of genuine conviction. 4. Though her 
people seemed too poor to have a fashionable 
place of worship, she was not ashamed of 
them, but worshiped God with them in an 
open-air meeting by the river-side. 5. And 
though they seemed not to have a man among 
them, she was loval to her God. Do these 



FIRST PKIXCIPLKS 113 

facts indicate a bad woman? If you know 
one such to-day, do you not point to her as a 
model Christian? 

But, being a Jewish worshiper, her heart 
was narrow. It was contracted by the prej- 
udices of that bigoted people. But, being 
an honest heart, it received the large, new 
truth which Paul preached, and thus it was 
'^opened," expanded, enlarged, just as multi- 
tudes of similar hearts are being opened every 
day. The gospel in such a heart is like the 
sun on a rosebud. It opens it, and enlarges 
and beautifies it, and causes it to send forth 
its sweet incense into the world. No miracle 
is necessary. Nature's laws are all that is 
needed. 

FILING OBJECTIONS. 

Having removed the main props under 
this theory, we next consider some serious 
objections to it. 

1. It turns attention aivay from the gospel. 
^'1 am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, 
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every 
one that believeth" (Rom. i. 16). If the gospel 
is God's power to save, any theory of conver- 
sion which turns the attention of the unsaved 



114 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

away from it, is false. This theory does so 
teach, and hence it is false. God uses no 
superfluous means. If one life-boat will save, 
why send two? If the gospel is 'Hhe power 
of God unto salvation," why another power? 
Note the fact that it is not a power — one of 
two, or many powers — but it is the power: 
the one sole and all-sufficient power to save. 

2. It destroys human responsihility. If mira- 
cle is essential to conversion, and if God only 
can work miracles, then man is not respon- 
sible for his sin. ''Trust God and keep your 
powder drj^," said Cromwell; not, ''Trust God 
to keep your powder dry." 

3. It makes God a cruel monster. The Bible 
teaches that he is our Father, and that he 
loves us with an infinite love. But this theory 
makes him a heartless monster, cruel and 
arbitrary. He tantalizes all with the offer 
of salvation, but refuses to exert the necessary 
power in the case of many, and thus mocks 
them in their misery, and trifles with them 
when the soul's eternal interests are involved. 
If you, a father, had two boys, weary and hun- 
gry, would you spread a tempting feast before 
them, knowing that they could not reach it 
^vithout special help from you, and yet extend 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 115 

the help to one and withhold it from the other? 
If so, you are a merciless monster, and deserve, 
as you would receive, the execration of all men. 
Any theory which so represents God, must be 
wrong. 

4. It makes infidels. Thoughtful people, seek- 
ing salvation, hear such preaching, turn from 
it with instinctive disgust, and say that it can 
not be the teaching of a just and loving God, 
and, knowing nothing better, they drift out 
into the cold sea of infidelity. Thousands 
of this class, many of them the brainiest and 
best, are in our midst to-day. Many of them 
do not turn from God at once, but go to the 
mourner's bench and wait and watch and pray 
for this special power. It does not come, 
and they finally turn back to their former 
lives with the deepest conviction that the 
whole thing is a farce, or that God is a respecter 
of persons. I not only thus speak from a wide 
observation, but also from a painful and well- 
nigh fatal experience. 

We are now ready to raise the question: 

WHAT IS CONVERSION? 

Conversion is turning. A traveler discov- 
ers that he is on the wrong road. He haltSj 



116 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

turns about, and changes his course. So, 
the sinner, discovering that lie is on the road 
to ruin, pauses, faces about and begins his, 
march over the narrow road which leads to 
life. Moody's definition is good: ^'Halt! Right 
about face! Forward, march!" But the Sa^•- 
iour's is better: The story of the prodigal 
son. He is plunging downward to death. 
The heavy hand of affliction is laid upon him. 
He pauses, reahzes his deep degradation, 
repents, resolves to do better, and at once puts 
his resolution into effect and returns to his 
father and is forgiven. 

The three thousand Jews at Pentecost, 
with hands stained in the blood of the Saviour, 
are arrested by Peter's sermon. They see 
their awful guilt, and cry out for help. The 
preacher tells them what to do. And the same 
day they change their course and enter the 
kingdom of God. Paul, breathing out threaten- 
ings and slaughter against the disciples of 
Christ, and having destroyed the church in 
Jerusalem, and about to repeat this destruc- 
tion in Damascus, is arrested in his mad career, 
and made to see his sin; when suddenl}^ his 
mighty life, with its measureless influence, 
is given to God. And so of the eunuch, I^ydia, 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 117 

the jailor, and multitudes of others in the 
Book of Acts; they hear, they halt, they turn 
about, are converted and saved. Could any- 
thing be simpler? Can not a child understand 
it? Why, then, so much confusion about it? 
There can be but one answer: it is because 
of the mist and fog with which the speculative 
theologians have surrounded it. Brush this 
away by the breath of the pure gospel, and 
there is not a responsible mortal beneath the 
stars who can not understand it. 

In the process of conversion let it never 
be forgotten that man, of his. own accord, does 
the turning. He is not a machine, turned 
to the right or left, and driven backward or 
forward, by some power other than his own; 
but he is a man in the image of God and endow- 
ed with the power of choice, and he turns to 
the right or left, and moves forward or back- 
ward, according to his own volition. So fear- 
fully and wonderfully made is he that he can 
look up into the face of God and say, / ivill 
or / ivill not, and Jehovah respects his decision. 
His heart is his castle, and no man, and no 
angel, and not even his Maker, has the right 
to enter without his permission. '^ Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 



118 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

and stonest them which are sent unto thee, 
how often would I have gathered thy children 
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
under her wings, and ye would not " (Matt, 
xxiii. 37). ''Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock; if any man hear my voice and open 
the door, I will come in, to him, and will sup 
with him, and he with me" (Rev. iii. 20). 
He was active in his degeneration, and he must 
be active in his regeneration. Of his own 
will he turned away from God, and of his own 
will he must come back to him. 

Proof of this proposition is found in the 
fact that the original for conversion occurs 
in the New Testament thirty-nine times, and 
in every case except one (the Revised Version) 
the ripe product of the scholarship of both 
the Old and New Worlds, renders it turn (active) 
and not he turned (passive). The same verb, 
without the preposition, occurs eighteen times, 
and in every case it is active. Is it not time 
that we drop the old and false phrase, ''be 
converted,'' and take up the new and true one. 
turnf 

Every Bible conversion has in it three great 
changes, a change of heart, a change of life, 
and a change of state. And God has provided 



FIRST PRINX^IPLER 119 

three agencies to produce these changes. 
Faith changes the heart, repentance changes 
the Ufe, and baptism changes the state or 
relationship. This order cannot be reversed. 

The state cannot be changed first, and then 
the life and heart. The heart is the beginning 
place. 

There can be no repentance, or change in 
life until we believe we have done wrong. And 
when we do so believe, the repentance naturally 
follows. And after the change in heart and 
life, and never before, are we to be baptized, 
which changes the relationship. The marriage 
ceremony illustrates this well. In every true 
marriage these three distinct steps take place. 
Faith, ripening into loving confidence and 
trus.t, changes the hearts. Their lives are 
changed, not by repentance, it is true, but 
they are changed. Their conduct toward each 
other, and toward others, is not what it once 
was; -and yet they are not married. But 
when the marriage ceremony is performed, 
their relationship is changed. Before the cere- 
mony, despite the changes already experienced, 
they were in the single state, and afterward 
they were in the married state. Baptism is the 



120 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

marriage ceremony by which the penitent 
soul is made part of the bride of Christ. 

THE AIM AND END "OF CONVERSION. 

''If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a 
neio creature: old things are passed away; 
behold, all things are become new" (II. Cor. 
V. 17). The servant girl, when asked for 
proof of her conversion, gave the true an- 
swer: ''I now sweep under the rugs." Be- 
fore her conversion she had been an ''eye- 
servant," taking advantage of her mistress, 
but now she is honest. Her conversion did 
not impart any new faculties to the soul, for 
they were not needed; but it revolutionized 
her life by turning these faculties into a new 
channel. She thought, desired, loved and 
hated as before, but the subjects of her thought, 
desire, love and hatred are changed. Con- 
version is like refitting an old ship and employ- 
ing it in the service of a new and better master. 
Christ takes possession of the ship and puts 
on a new pilot and new compass, and throws 
overboard everything that is evil, and fills 
her with a better cargo, and turns her toward 
heaven. It is the same ship, but her course is 
changed. 



CHAPTER X. 



CHANGE OF HEART. 



Perhaps there is no question connected 
with Christianity around which more mist 
is found than the question of ''Change of 
Heart"; and possibly not one of them so Ut- 
tle deserves this misty environment. 

WHAT IS THE HEART? 

Before inquiring how the heart is changed 
let us know what it is. It can not be the 
fleshly heart located in the left breast, for it 
is the same before and after conversion. It is 
no more changed than the hand or foot. 

Let us ascertain what the heart is, by what 
it does. If a man shoes horses, he is a black- 
smith; if he sells goods, he is a merchant; if 
he practices law, he is a lawyer. Now if we 
can find what the heart does, we can safely 
decide what the heart is. What does it do? 
The word ''heart" occurs many times in the 
Bible, and yet all these passages are capable 
of a fourfold classification, showing that the 
heart does four things. 

121 



122 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

1. It believes. '^For this people's heart is 
waxed gross, their ears are dull of hearing, 
and their eyes have thej^ closed; lest they 
should see with their eyes, and hear with 
their ears, and should understand with their 
heart'' (Matt. xiii. 15). '^And immediately 
when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they 
so reasoned within themselves, he said unto 
them. Why reason ye these things in your 
hearts?" (Mark ii. 8). ''For with, the heart 
man helieveth unto righteousness, and with 
the mouth confession is made unto salvation" 
(Rom. X. 10). These Scriptures teach that 
the heart understands, reasons and believes. 
Let us, for the present, separate these faculties 
from the will, the emotions, etc., and understand 
them to include simply the power to examine 
testimony and render verdicts. 

2. It loves, ''So Absalom stole the hearts 
of the men of Israel" (I. Sam. xv. 6). By 
examining the context it will be seen that 
Absalom was a modern-day politician. The 
handsome young prince, with "chariots and 
horses, and fifty men to run before him," 
was found on the highway pouring out sym- 
pathy for the "dear people"; and when one 
came near to do him "obeisance, he put forth 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 123 

his hand, and kissed him." Thus he won 
their affections, or stole their hearts. ''Master, 
which is the greatest commandment in the 
law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love 
the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind'' 
(Matt. XX. 36). In this passage the heart 
is meant specially to include the affections. 

3. // wills. "Nevertheless, he that stand- 
eth steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, 
but hath power over his own will, and hath 
so decreed in his o^\ti heart that he mil keep 
his own wgin, doeth well'' (I. Cor. vii. 37). 
"Every man according as he purposeth in his 
heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of 
necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver'' 
(II. Cor. ix. 7). Here it is seen that in addition 
to faith and affections, the heart includes the 
will. 

4. It condemns. "Let us draw near with 
a true heart in full assurance of faith, having 
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
and our bodies washed with pure water" 
(Heb. X. 11). "For if our heart (tondemn 
us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth 
all things" (I. John iii. 20). A fourth element 
the conscience, the power that condemns 



124 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

when we do wrong, is now added to the heart. 
Having now learned from the Book that 
the heart includes the intellect: the reason- 
ing power; the affections: the power to love; 
the will: the great drive-wheels of humanity; 
and the conscience: the inner monitor, which 
cheers us when in the right, and chides us when 
in the wrong, we are able to decide as to what 
it is. It embraces the '^ inner man^' (11. Cor. 
iv. 16) — everything except the flesh and blood 
— and includes all that is immortal in man. 
It sweeps our natures from their loftiest heights 
to their deepest depths, and includes the 
whole of the spiritual in its ample scope. 

HOW IS THE HEART CHANGED? 

While answering this question, let us remem- 
ber that we have not two sets of faculties, 
as some seem to think, one for religion, and 
the other for the things of the world. The 
same powers used in business and in intellectual 
and moral matters are to be used in religion. 
And when we see how they are used in these 
things, we can understand their use in 
spiritual matters. 

1. The intellect is changed hy testimony. 
You are on a jury, and the lawyer wishes so 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 125 

to change your mind that you will render a 
verdict in favor of his client. How does he 
proceed? He submits testimony, and asks 
you to examine it. Is there any other rea- 
sonable and honorable way to proceed? If 
not, and man having but one set of mental 
faculties, is it rational to expect God to pro- 
ceed in a different w^ay when he wants the 
mind changed? Suppose the lawyer should 
command you to believe his client innocent 
but furnish no proof; or, suppose he should 
earnestly, tenderly and eloquently pray for 
the change of your heart, and should have 
others pray for you, and should induce you 
to pray, what would you think of him? You 
would answer: ''The man is either himself 
deceived — does not know the nature of man 
— or he thinks I do not, and he is trying to 
deceive me. I can not believe without tes- 
timony." Certainly not. Neither can you 
believe in God and Christ without testimony, 
hence they have piled it about you, moun- 
tain high, and made it so clear that the way- 
faring man, though a fool, shall not err there- 
in. 

2. The affections are changed by loveliness. 
^ye instinctively love the lovely. A vine is 



126 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

prostrate on the ground. You want it to rise, 
and you speak to it: ''Little vine, get up out 
of the dust, so that you may breathe the sweet, 
pure atmosphere of heaven." It can not do 
it. Its tendrils are reaching everywhere for a 
support by which to rise. You see this, and 
place the trellis within reach, and it begins to 
climb toward the sun. It needs no command 
or exhortation, but a trellis. The babe, cooing 
on its mother's bosom, needs not to be told 
to love her. The heart tendrils will fasten 
themselves about her — if she is lovely. You 
need not try to make the world love you. 
Only be lovely, and the world will do the rest. 
And so it is in our religious nature. Arid 
when Christ, the fairest among ten thousand 
and the one altogether lovely, is presented 
to the heart, it clasps its arm about the cross, 
and is lifted up to God. No wonder the Master 
said: ''And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto me" (John xii. 32); 
and no wonder that Paul, the prince of preachers 
said, "I determined not to know anything 
among you, save Jesus Christ and him cru- 
cified" (L Cor. ii. 2). 

3. The ivill is changed by motives. A man 
woos and wins the heart of a noble woman, 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 127 

and he solemnly vows to be a true husband. 
But the vows are broken, and her heart is 
crushed. The hght from her eye goes out; 
the tint fades from the cheek, and her laughter 
is changed to sobs and sighs. AVith every 
hope blasted, and surrounded by the ruins 
of all that she once held dear, and with her 
little ones about her, she cries in the depths 
of her desolate heart, not with her lips: ''Pre- 
cious children, but for you I would launch 
myself into awful eternity. Your father, once 
so good and true, has become a wreck — a help- 
less, hopeless wTeck, and I am desolate indeed." 
This man is your friend; and you would rescue 
him, and light again with joy and love that 
little cottage home. He loves his wife and 
children; he knows hi§ duty; and in his better 
moments he desires to be to them again what 
he once was: a true husband and father. But, 
oh, how weak! His will power is shattered, 
and he is no longer a match for the tempter. 
What does he need? How can you rescue 
him? His mind does not need changing, and 
his affections do not need rekindling. But 
his will power needs to be aroused. How 
shall this be done? You tell him of his sor- 
rowing wife and precious children, and of 



128 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

their love for him and need of him. And 
as you plead with him he weeps, and despises 
himself as a covenant-breaker, and a weakling. 
He clenches his teeth, bites his lips, and, with 
almost superhuman effort, once more rallies 
his broken powers, sends up a petition to God 
for help, and, like the prodigal, says, '^I will 
arise!" And he does, in the strength of Jeho- 
vah, rise and become a man again. How w^as 
it done? The motives connected with wife 
and babies, coupled with help from on high, 
enabled him to rise. And so, when the Father 
would change our wills and nerve us for lifers 
great battles, he presents motives embracing 
every good thing in this life and in the life to 
come — motives high as heaven, deep as hell, 
broad as the universe, pure as Jesus, and strong 
and lasting as the pillars of the throne of glory. 
4. The conscience is changed hy right-doing. 
A child disobeys mother and is unhappy. 
The conscience, with a scourge of small cords, 
lashes the little one into an agony. With 
swollen eyes she tosses on her bed, for the 
sweet angel, Sleep, refuses to come. The 
guilty bosom, like the boiling sea, is tumbling, 
rolling and groaning under the mad chastening 
of the storm. 



FIHST PKIXCIPLKS 120 

What is her trouble? and how .shall it be 
remedied? Her trouble is wrong-doing, and 
its only cure is right-doing. Let her steal 
up to mamma's side, throw her arms about 
her neckr, beg her forgiveness, while she pro- 
mises to be a better girl, and all will be well. 
The dark clouds will vanish, the angry waves 
will become calm, the fearful thunders will 
hush, the fierce lightnings will cease, and 
the sunlight of sweet peace will once more 
fill the soul. 

When the conscience of Zaccheus condemned 
him, he promised to undo the wrong by be- 
stowing half his goods upon the poor, and by 
restoring fourfold for all his fraudulent gains, 
and peace came to his heart and home. AVhen 
the prodigal son fully realized his sin, he re- 
traced his steps, and found peace and pardon 
and plenty awaiting his return. And thus 
it must ever be. AATien we sin against God 
or man; the conscience, if not dead, will chide, 
and continue to chide, until, so far as we are 
able, we undo the wrong. 

Would you have your heart changed? Re- 
member its importance. It is the hinge on 
which eternal destinies turn. No change of 
heart means no peace of soul on earth, and 



130 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

no home in heaven. Its importance can not 
be exaggerated. 

A PICTURE. 

A young woman was intensely interested 
in her salvation, and she became so wrought 
up over the question of a change of heart 
that her friends feared for the safety of her 
mind. Many attempts were made to meet 
her difficulty, but all failed. Finally, an old 
preacher who had no diploma or ecclesiastical 
titles, but a man of rugged common sense, 
who knew his Bible and humanity, came 
that way. The parents besought him to 
help their darling daughter. He gladly made 
the attempt. And he soon learned that her 
trouble grew out of confusion of thought 
as to a change of heart. She had no concep- 
tion as to what the heart was, and hence was 
totally ignorant as to how it was changed. 
She had been taught that every conversion 
was the result of miraculous power, and she 
was waiting and praying for God to put forth 
that power and save her soul. But being a 
woman of good mind she soon learned the way 
of the Lord more perfectly. He asked her if 
she believed in God and Christ and the Bible, 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 131 

and she said she did. "Well," said he, ''that 
part of the mind which believes is all right. 
You do not want it changed, for then you would 
no longer believe in your Creator, Saviour 
and their Book." She saw the point, and 
agreed with her new teacher. 

He then asked if she loved God, Christ, 
the Bible, and everything good; and was as- 
sured that she did. "Then," said the preacher, 
"you do not want that part of the heart which 
loves — the affections — changed, for then you 
would hate these things." Again she agreed 
with him, and urged him to go on with his 
instructions. 

He next asked as to her purpose in life: 
had she determined to be a Christian? She 
answered that that was her supreme purpose. 
"Then, your will needs no change," he said. 
"Your purpose is pure and heavenward, and 
it would be ruinous to change it." Once 
more she grasped his clear logic, and begged 
him to go on. 

He now asked if her conscience gave her 
trouble, and was told that it almost drove 
her wild. "The only way to stop its lash- 
ings," said he, "is to undo the wrongs of the 
past as far as possible, and faithfully do the 



132 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

right in the future/' She confessed her Saviour, 
and was baptized, and became a bright and 
shining hght in the church. The conscience, 
the only section of the heart in rebeUion, was 
changed, and she was at peace. 

How is it with yo^i? If your faith and 
affections and purposes are all pointing to 
God, as is true in many cases, and yet you 
are not happy, follow the example of this 
girl, and your heart will also be flooded and 
sweetened with the joys of heaven. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE CONFESSION. 

Now that the atmosphere about conversion, 
cliange of heart, etc., has been cleared up, 
we are ready to consider the question of 

THE CONFESSION. 

Confession and baptism are so intimately 
related that a Scriptural discussion of the one 
involves the other. They are related to each 
other as sorrow and repentance; as love and 
marriage. There may be sorrow without re- 
pentance, and there may be love without mar- 
riage; but there can be no repentance without 
sorrow, and no marriage without love. Sorrow 
and love precede repentance and marriage, 
and make them possible. And so is confession 
related to baptism, and hence it should be 
studied in connection with that ordinance. 
But for our present purpose it is probably best, 
so far as possible, to study it as a distinct 
theme. 

ORIGIN OF THE CONFESSION. 

When Christ appeared among men they 
formed different opinions regai'ding him, just as 

133 



134 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

they do to-day. Some thought him good, and 
others thought him bad; some said he was 
human, and others said he was divine; some 
thought him a teacher sent of God, and others 
that he was a deceiver of the people, and so 
they would express themselves. One would 
say, "1 believe he is the Messiah"; another, ''I 
believe he is a prophet"; and still another, ''I 
believe he is an impostor." Thus a line was 
drawn, and his enemies agreed 'Hhat if any did 
confess that he was the Christ, he should be 
put out of the synagogue" (John xix. 22). 
The Saviour accepted the test and said, ''He 
that confesses me before men, him will I confess 
before my father in heaven; but he that denies 
me before men, him will I deny before my 
Father in heaven" (Matt. x. 32, 33). Thus 
the confession, as regards men, originated nat- 
urally, and served to identify the followers of 
Christ ; and on this account it became associated 
with baptism, the ordinance in which the 
sinner in symbol was separated from the ser- 
vice of Satan and dedicated to the service of 
God. 

Later in the Master's ministry the confession 
received an emphasis which gave to it the 
greatest possible importance. Benjamin Frank- 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 135 

lin made one of the most daring and far-reaching 
experiments ever made by man. A cluster of 
clouds hung over his head, and he gazed wistfully 
upon them, longing for light on a scientific 
(luestion. Finally, he let fly a paper kite with 
a metallic chain attached. He waited, watched, 
and wondered, and, finally, applied his knuckles 
to the chain, and the sparks of the wild light- 
ning played about him; and had the stream 
been a little stronger, the bold philosopher 
would have died on the spot. And so clouds of 
opinion filled the heavens about the Saviour. 
Some said he was John the Baptist; some, 
that he was Elijah; others that he was Jeremiah ; 
and many, that he was one of the prophets. 
Everything was vague, hazy and misty, and, 
wanting something definite, he sent out two 
questions — kite-like — and they brought back 
light and truth of infinitely more value that 
that secured by Franklin. ''Whom do men 
say thp^ I, the Son of man, am?" (Matt. xvi. 13). 
.^d the answer came that he was some great 
personage ranking with the old heroes and 
prophets of the past. Another question quickly 
follows: ''But whom say ye that I am?" 
(verse 16). You have had the best opportu- 
nities to know me, what do you say? You, for 



136 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

three years, have been at my side and seen 
much of my work: what of the worker? During 
that time you have know my teaching: what 
of the teacher? Peter, the foreman of the 
jury, or, as Chrysostom calls him, ^Hhe leader 
of the apostolic choir," answered, '^Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God" (verse 16). 
Great question! Great answer! Peter is at 
his best. Never before or afterward does he 
rise to a loftier height. His vision pierces the 
very heavens, and his voice is the echo of 
Jehovah. The heart of Columbus was filled 
and thrilled with joy as he looked for the 
first time on the New World ; and so was Balboa, 
as, from a lofty mountain crag in Panama, his 
eyes first saw the Pacific Ocean. Marvelous as 
were these discoveries, they are not to be 
compared with that which now burst upon the 
vision of Peter. It was the sun of all light, 
the chief of all truth, and contained within 
its rich bosom the incarnation, the atonement 
and the resurrection. It had been hid from 
the wise and prudent and revealed to a babe. 
The prophets had not all seen it clearly. To 
the Rabbi he was a root out of the dry ground, 
and with no beauty that he should be desired. 
The eyes of the philosophers were holden so 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 137 

that they only saw a man — a rehgious enthu- 
siast — when the Son of God stood in their 
midst. But Simon Peter discovered the glori- 
ous truth, and proclaimed him Lord of lords 
and King of kings. No wonder the Lord 
pronounced a blessing on him, the like of 
which is not to be found in all the Book: 
'' Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah, for 
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 
but my Father which is in heaven'' (verse 17). 
The Psalms begin with the words, ''Blessed 
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of 
the ungodly,'' etc., and the Sermon on the 
Mount with the words, ''Blessed are the poor 
in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 
But these are benedictions on a character, 
while this is a blessing on an individual. And 
what makes this more remarkable is that we 
seek in vain for another called "blessed" by 
the lips of our Lord. 

It is not strange that from this time forth 
he tells his disciples plainly of his death. It had 
been spoken of before, but now it is declared 
often and plainly. He sees himself compre- 
hended by, and enthroned in, the human heart, 
and he can safely leave the rest to his faithful 
followers, and he will return to the Father. 



138 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

SCOPE OF THE CONFESSION. 

Christianity is a symmetrical system of truth, 
harmonious and complete, and, as such, must 
have a great common center. The sun is the 
center of the physical universe, and around him 
all the planets revolve. Destroy this fact, 
and our system of astronomy is destroyed; but 
accept it, and we thereby admit the laws of 
gravitation and attraction, the centripetal and 
centrifugal forces, and acknowledge that the 
earth and all her sister planets revolve round 
him, and borrow from his brightness all 
light and luster. Mohammedanism as a 
rehgious system has its fundamental truth, 
the common center which gives character to all 
its teachings. That truth is: Mohammed is 
the prophet of God. Accept this, and the 
whole system is accepted; reject it, and all is 
rejected. The confession is to Christianity 
what the sun is to the Copernican system of 
astronomy, and what the belief in Mohammed 
is to Mohammedanism. It is its great funda- 
mental principle — the foundation on which the 
church rests — the one central truth to which 
all others are subordinate, and from which they 
receive their life and power. That this may 
be seen let us analyze this confession: 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 139 

1. ''Thou art the Christ/' Many seem to 
think that " Christ'' is a part of the name of 
Jesus, and hence use the words "Jesus Christ" 
as they use "George Washington." But it 
is no part of his name. Jesus is his name, 
and it was divinely given. (Matt. i. 20.) Christ 
is his official title. Edward King is the name 
of a man. But Edward the king is much 
more. It means that he is the ruler of his 
people. Christ means anointed. The three syn- 
onymous words, "Messiah," which is Hebrew; 
"Christos," which is Greek; and "Christ," 
which is English; all mean the "Anointed One," 
a term familiar to every Jew. So when Peter 
says, "Thou art the Christ," it meant that he 
was the "Anointed One." And they knew that 
but three classes of their 'rulers — prophets, 
priests and kings — were installed by anointing, 
and hence Jesus was declared to be their 
prophet, priest and king, and thus meet the 
threefold wants of men: a power to deliver 
from ignorance, guilt and bondage. As prophet 
he teaches, as priest he atones and intercedes, 
and as king he liberates from the fetters of sin, 
rules over us, and leads to battle, victory and 
glory. He is pre-eminent. We are to hear no 



140 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

other prophet; to look to no other priest; and 
to obey no other king. 

2. '^The Son." Not a son in the sense in 
which all are sons; but as the Son in a peculiar 
sense — the divine and only Saviour. 

3. ''Of the living God." The besetting sin 
of the Jew was idolatry. Under the very 
shadow of Sinai, and while the ten command- 
ments were still ringing in their ears, one of 
which specifically condemned it, they worship 
the golden calf. And ever afterward, till finally 
cured by the bitter bondage of Babylon, they are 
continually falling into this terrible sin; hence 
the significance of the phrase ''the living God." 
He is not the son of some lifeless god, such as 
could be seen on every hand, but of the living 
God, the Maker and Preserver of all things. 

That additional force and dignity may be 
given to this confession, let us hear a little further. 
God, who speaks through the Spirit, angels and 
men, seldom speaks in person. In the begin- 
ning he spoke, and a world sprang into existence. 
In Eden he spoke, and a family with language 
and religion was organized. After twenty-five 
hundred years his chariot of cloud paused over 
Horeb, and he spoke again, and a nation was 
organized. Fifteen centuries more pass by, 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 14] 

and, as his Son comes up from his baptism in 
the Jordan, he again breaks the silence of thv 
heavens and says: "This is my beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased." And a little 
later, on the mount of transfiguration, he 
repeats the same words and adds, ''Hear ye 
him.'' And Paul, looking forward to the con- 
summation of all things, says : " God hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a name which is 
above every name, that at the name of Jesus, 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 
and things on earth, and things under the earth, 
and that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" 
(Phil. ii. 9-11). 

THE CONFESSION AND BAPTISM. 

It is generally conceded that in the early 
church the confession was used as a test of the 
fitness of candidates for baptism. In Acts 
viii. 29-39 we have, in all probabihty, the 
apostolic custom in this matter. The eunuch 
is convinced of the divinity of the Lord, and as 
they approach a suitable place for baptizing, 
he says: ''See, here is water; what doth hinder 
me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou 
bolievost with all thino heart, thon mnvrr4. 



142 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

And he answered and said, I believe that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God/' and immediately 
he was baptized. Admit that this clause, bring- 
ing out th^ confession, is an interpolation, still 
it is of great value. The object of the inter- 
polator was to fill up a historic blank, so that 
the baptism should not appear abrupt, and in 
supplying the blank, he would insert the usual 
custom. Now, if the interpolation harmonizes 
with the Scriptures, it receives all needed 
corroboration. We have already seen how the 
confession, in the early ministry of Christ, 
located his friends. We have also seen that, 
when made by Peter, it was declared to be 
the foundation on which the church was to be 
built. The eunuch, a stranger to Philip, is asking 
Tor admission into the church, and it is most 
uatural that the test be applied. The confession 
(;f Timothy was evidently made in connection 
u'iih his baptism. '' Fight the good fight of faith, 
'ay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also 
called, and hast confessed a good confession 
before many witnesses" (I. Tim. vi. 12). The 
two thoughts here mentioned of his call, which 
is by the gospel (II. Thess. ii. 14), and by lay- 
ing hold on eternal life, make this clear. 

The historians of the early church corroborate 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 143 

this view of the confession. Irenseus, A. D. 107, 
speal^ of the eunuch's confession, showing that 
the apostoUc custom continued till near the 
close of the second century. Mosheim says: 
''At the first proclamation of the gospel, all 
that professed firmly to believe that Jesus was 
the only Redeemer of mankind, " were baptized. 
Neander says: ''There was only one article of 
faith: belief in Jesus as the Messiah." Shedd: 
"The candidate for admission to the church, 
at his baptism, professed his faith in Christ 
as the Redeemer of the world." Conybeare 
and Howson: "In ordinary cases the sole con- 
dition required for baptism was, that the per- 
son to be baptized should acknowledge Jesus 
as the Messiah." 

It therefore seems safe to conclude that in 
the early church the confession, as we practice 
it to-day, was the one test of the fitness for 
baptism. The candidate was not required to 
accept an elaborate creed, and his opinion 
regarding speculative teachings was not asked 
for. His acceptance or rejection depended 
solely on his relationship to Christ. If he 
confessed him as the Son of God and Saviour 
of men, he was baptized; if he refused to do 
this, he was not baptized. But later when 



144 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

theology had usurped the place of the gospel; 
and the theologian had displaced the evangelist; 
other tests were added, and the primitive sim- 
plicity and power of the truth were almost 
destroyed. 

WHY WE SHOULD MAKE THE GOOD CONFESSION. 

1. For our own good. It commits us pub- 
licly to Christ. It is like a brave soldier entering 
the territory of his foe and burning the bridges 
behind him. And how many of us have been 
steadied and made heroic in the after conflicts 
by remembering that God, angels and men 
had all once heard this confession from our lips. 
Don't fear to make a holy vow. Great men 
make great vows, and they serve as anchors 
to the soul. 

2. For the good of others. Christianity is 
much more than something between God and 
ourselves. The light must not be kept beneath 
the bushel. A seen religion is not always real; 
but a real religion is always seen. A plant 
grown in the dark is pale and sickly, and bears 
neither beautiful blossoms nor rich fruit. The 
bold stand taken in the confession will encourage 
your timid friends to confess their Saviour, as 
the act of Nicodemus in calling for the body 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 145 

of Jesus brought Joseph of Arimathea from ob- 
scurity. It will also add courage to the hosts 
who are battling for God, as Paul ''thanked 
God and took courage" when he met his friends 
at Appii forum. 

3. For the good of Christ. If some friend who 
had been true to you or to yours in some emer- 
gency were maligned on the street, your blood 
would boil, and you would hasten to his defence. 
What friend has been so true as Jesus of Naza- 
reth? In sunshine and in shadow alike he has 
ever been your friend. And he has also been 
the friend of your mother and father. Not one 
single good thing received in the whole of life 
but that came from his gracious hands. And 
yet this friend is being constantly blasphemed 
upon our streets. And if we do not confess 
him, we are not neutral, bad as that would 
be, but we are against him. ''He that is not 
with me is against me" (Matt. xii. 30). 



CHAPTER XII. 



ACTION OF BAPTISM. 



The penitent soul in search of salvation, 
having believed on the Christ, repented of 
sin, and confessed the Saviour before men, is 
now ready to be baptized. How shall it be 
done? Some would answer one thing and 
some another, but what saith the Book? ''To 
the law and to the testimony: if they speak 
not according to this word, it is because there 
is no light in them^' (Isa. viii. 20). 

There is much perplexity here. Many people 
with honest hearts desire to do just what the 
Lord commands, but they do not know what 
it is. Having once passed through this expe- 
rience, I can truly sympathize with them; and 
nothing will give me more pleasure than to 
come to their assistance in this hour of need. 
Let us now put away, if possible, all prejudice 
and preconceived notions, and study the ques- 
tion with the single desire of knowing the truth 
and walking therein. 

FOUR FIGURES. 

1. Baptism of the earth. "The like figure 

146 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 147 

[the overflow of the earth in the flood] where- 
unto even baptism doth also now save us'' 
(I. Pet. iii. 21). In Gen. vi. 17-24 we are told 
that the flood came and the waters rose above 
the "high hills/' "and the mountains were 
covered/' and "every living substance was 
destroyed from the earth." And this, to Peter, 
is a picture of baptism; but it can not possibly 
refer to anything but immersion. 

2. Baptism of Israel in the sea. "Moreover, 
brethren, I would not that you should be 
ignorant, how that all our fathers were under 
the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 
and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud 
and in the sea " (I. Cor. x. 1 , 2) . By reference to 
Ex. xiv. 15-22, we find the facts on which 
this figure rests. Moses stretched out his rod 
"over the sea, and the waters were parted, and 
stood Hke a wall unto them on the right hand 
and on the left, and the children of Israel en- 
tered into the midst of the sea on dry ground," 
while the pillar of cloud which had led them 
thus far, passed over to the rear and stood 
between the two hosts, concealing Israel from 
her enemies. Paul calls this a baptism. What 
kind of a baptism does it represent? Certainly 
not affusion. It bears as little resemblance 



148 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

to sprinkling or pouring as does the flood. But 
it does resemble an immersion. As the people 
passed in between the walls of water, with the 
cloud hanging over them and in rear of them, 
there was a fine picture of immersion. That 
you may see this clearly, place two books of 
equal size side by side, and standing upright 
a few inches apart, and hang a handkerchief on 
them, with its folds dropping down in the rear. 
The books are the walls of water, and the 
overhanging 'kerchief is the cloud, and the 
Jews are concealed in the inclosure. What a 
forcible and simple representation of immersion. 
3. Burial and resurrection. ''Know ye not 
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore 
we are buried with him by baptism into death, 
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life. For if we have been 
planted in the likeness of his death, we shall 
be also in the likeness of his resurrection" 
(Rom. vi. 3-5). No mistake should be made 
here. All are familiar with burials. Our loved 
ones have left us. We have stood by the grave, 
and, with breaking hearts and streaming eyes, 
have watched their bodies sink beneath the 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 149 

sod. And then with the eye of faith we have 
seen these bodies raised and changed so as to 
be Hke unto the glorious body of the Lord. 

In this figure are three facts: (1) Death, 
(2) burial, (3) resurrection. .Ajid so the sinner 
(1) dies to sin, (2) is buried in baptism and (3) 
rises from the liquid grave to walk in newness 
of life. 

And as we watch the penitent sinner sink 
beneath the wave, and rise to go forth in the 
Christian life, we instinctively recognize the beau- 
ty and perfection of the symbol. No one can fail 
to see them; neither can he fail to see that the 
sprinkling or pouring of a little w^ater on the 
head does not in any sense represent a burial. 

4. Sufferings of the Saviour. "1 have a bap- 
tism to be baptized with; and how am I strait- 
ened [pained] till it be accomplished!" (Luke 
xii. 50). The Saviour in these tender words 
refers to his sufferings, and calls them a baptism. 
The Sivdul agony of Gethsemane, with its bloody 
sweat, and Calvary, with its excruciating pain, 
its darkness and desertion, are before him, 
when from his broken heart would be wrung 
the bitter cry, ''My God! my God! why hast 
thou forsaken me!" Let the reverent soul look 
upon this scene, and then ask himself, Does 



150 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

sprinkling a little water on the face, or the 
burial of the body in its depths, represent these 
sufferings? Surely not the former, but the 
latter. As we see his pure soul plunged into 
this bitter sea of suffering, and behold the black 
waves, mountain high, overflow him, we feel 
that nothing short of the complete burial of 
the body in the baptismal waters can symbol- 
ize it. 

FOUR FACTS. 

1. John's baptism. ''In those days came 
John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness 
of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand. . . . Then went 
out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea, and all 
the region round about Jordan, and were 
baptized of him in Jordan, confersing their 
sins " (Matt. iii. 1-6). Notice that John baptized 
''in Jordan." He did not stand on the bank 
near the water, but went down into the stream. 
A¥hy this? If his baptism had been by affusion, 
I can see no sense in it, for he could easily 
have dipped up the water and saved himself 
and the people the inconvenience of going into 
it. But as it was an immersion, the going 
down into the river was a necessity. 

2. Baptizing in Mnon. "And John also was 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 151 

baptizing in ^Enon, near Salim, because there 
was much water there" (John iii. 23). We 
are not left to guess why John went to iEnon to 
baptize, but are told that it was ''because there 
was much water there." SprinkUng and pour- 
ing do not require ''much water," but immer- 
sion does, therefore John's baptism was im- 
mersion. If it should be said that a man 
located his mill at a certain place "because 
there was much water there," all would under- 
stand that it required "much water" to ope- 
rate that mill. 

3. Baptism of Jesus. "And Jesus, when he 
was baptized, went up straightway out of the 
water" (Matt. iii. 16). The Saviour's long 
journey to the Jordan to be baptized is finished. 
He makes known his mission to John, and he 
refuses to baptize him, claiming that himself, 
and not Jesus, needed to be baptized. But 
the Master replied, "Suffer it to be so now, 
for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteous- 
ness." Then John led him into the water, 
and buried him beneath the yielding wave, 
after which he "went up straightw^ay out of 
the water." As we look upon this sacred scene, 
let prejudice and previous bias have no place 
in our hearts, and let us ask, How was my Lord 



152 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

baptized? And when the answer is clear, let 
us walk in his footsteps, whatever be the cost. 
And what is the answer? There can be but 
one: He was immersed. Immersion requires 
coming up out of the water; sprinkling and 
pouring do not; therefore Jesus was immersed. 
4. Baptism of the eunuch. ''And as they 
went on their way, they came unto a certain 
water, and the eunuch said. See, here is water; 
what doth hinder me to be baptized? And 
Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, 
thou may est. And he answered and said, I 
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 
And he commanded the chariot to stand still; 
and they went down both into the water, both 
Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 
And when they were come up out of the w^ater," 
etc. (Acts viii. 36-39). This story, plain 
enough for a primer, it would seem, could not 
be misunderstood by men of clear heads and 
honest hearts. It says that they first came to 
the water. That would have been sufficient for 
affusion. No need in that case to go down into 
it, but only to dip it up. But it does not stop 
there. After coming to the water, they next 
go down into it, and there the baptism takes 
place; and after the baptism they come up out 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 153 

of the water. All this is necessary for immer- 
sion, but not for affusion; therefore this is a ra.s(» 
of immersion. It is said that in the early days of 
our history a preacher found a bright Indian 
boy, told him about the Christ, gave him the 
New Testament, and asked him to read it and 
be ready to do his duty when he came again. 
They separated, the preacher going over his 
long circuit, and the boy to his wigwam to 
study his strange, new book. After three 
months they met again. The preacher asked 
the boy if he had learned his duty to Jesus, 
and was told that he had. ''What is it, my 
son?" asked the preacher. ''Duty of Injun 
to be baptized," replied the boy. The good 
man thanked the Lord. The boy asked when 
he could be baptized, and was told to-day. 
He then asked ichere he would be baptized, 
and was informed that it would take place there 
where they were assembled. After a puzzled 
survey of the surroundings, in which he failed 
to discover any such facilities as he thought 
necessary, he asked, "Where is water for bap- 
tizing Injun?" "Here it is," said the preacher, 
pointing to a pitcher on the table. "You no 
put Injun do^\Ti into pitcher," was the prompt 
reply. "I will not put you in the pitcher," 



154 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

said the preacher, ''but will pour the water 
on your head." With a look of keenest disap- 
pointment, the boy turned away, saying, ''You 
give Injun wrong book." 

What a commentary on the simplicity of 
the language of the New Testament on the 
subject of baptism. This intelligent and hon- 
est-hearted boy, who had never heard of a 
Greek lexicon or grammar, and knew not the 
meaning of the word "theology," reads it 
without prejudice, learns that a penitent be- 
liever should be baptized, and that, in order 
to baptism, he has to go down into the water. 
And perhaps there is not, and never has been, 
and never will be, a similar situation without 
a similar conclusion. 

Putting these figures and facts together, 
the case of immersion is made out. It is not 
all that could be said, but it is all that need 
be said. For if we will not be convinced by 
them, we would hardly be convinced even 
though a large volume was wTitten on the 
subject. But that certainty may be made 
doubly sure, I will add 

FOUR OTHER PROOFS. 

1. Definition of Baptizo. The Greek word 



FIRST PRINCIPLES ihh 

from which we get our word ''baptism/' 
means primarily to immerse. The scholarship 
of the world, whatever may be the practice 
of these scholars as to baptism, may be re- 
garded a unit on this point. There are two 
other words in the Greek, one meaning to 
sprinkle and the other to pour, and yet the 
Master passed both of them by and chose the 
one which means immerse. This fact alone 
ought forever to settle this question. 

2. Testimony of the Greeks. If in China a 
question should be raised as to the meaning 
of an English word, the best way to settle 
it would be to appeal to the English-speaking 
people. Applying this principle in this case, 
let us appeal to the Greeks. Ancient and 
modern Greek is substantially the same. If the 
Greek Fathers: Socrates, Plato, Demosthenes 
and Homer, should return to Athens to-day, 
they w^ould have little difficulty in reading 
the daily papers. It is claimed that there has 
been less change in the Greek language during 
the past twenty-four hundred years than in 
the English within the past five hundred years. 
The word ''baptize'' is therefore in constant 
use among the Greeks to-day, and it is used 
now as it was in the time of Christ. Cere as. 



156 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

a strong Greek writer, says, '^Righteousness 
forbids a man to dip [baptize] his pen in the 
filth of flattery." And their rehgious practice 
is immersion. And, to cap the chmax, the 
Presbyterians of the United States have some 
churches in Greece, and they practice immersion, 

3. Immerson satisfies the soul. Water slakes 
thirst, -bread appeases hunger, light fits the 
eye, and sound, the ear, showing that these 
things were designed for these purposes. And 
so it is with immersion. It is a well-known 
fact that thousands of good people are con- 
stantly becoming dissatisfied with sprinkling 
and pouring, and are immersed; but not so 
with the immersed. Their baptism satisfies 
the soul, and leaves it, so far as that ordinance 
is concerned, forever at rest, showing that as 
bread and water, light and sound are adapted 
to man's material wants, so is this ordinance 
adapted to his spiritual wants. 

4:. It is the safe way. In material things a 
statement like this has wonderful weight. 
If the reader wished to buy a home, and 
finding two places which he liked equally 
well, should ascertain that there was well- 
grounded doubt as to the title of one, but 
none as to the other, he would not hesitate 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 



157 



to choose the place about whose title there- 
was no doubt. It would not be necessary to 
convince him that the title was had; only show 
him that it is reasonably doubtful, and he 
would turn from it, and he would be wise. 
C'The children of this world are wiser in their 
generation than the children of light.") And 
this is the exact position of the baptismal 
question. Immersion is not in doubt, but 
affusion is. The great army of those who 
practice nothing but immersion, and multitudes 
of others who practice affusion, testify to the 
Scripturalness of immersion, and all others say 
it is all right, but add that they think the forvi 
of baptism is not important, and so they substi- 
tute something else for it. The title to affusion 
is therefore clearly in grave doubt; why not 
take the safe side? 

Let us close this study with an 

APPEAL TO THE EYE. 

\ I AFFUSION 

BAPTISM REQUIRES: IMMERSION REQUIRES: REQUIRES: 



1. Water (Matt. hi. 16). |l. Water. 

2. Much^ water (John iii. g. Much water. 

3. Coming to the water 3. Coming to the water. 



(Acts viii. 38) 

4. Going down into the 

water (Acts viii. 38) 

5. Coming up out of the 

water (Acts \nii. 39) 

6. The figure of a burial 

(Rom. vi. 4). 

7. The figiire of a resur- 

rection (Rom. ^^. 4) 



1. Water. 

2. 



o 

4. Going down into the 

water. 

5. Coming up out of the 

water. 

6. The figure of a burial. 



The figure of a resiir- 
rection. 



6. 



158 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

From the diagram, which is based on the 
Scriptm-es, it is seen that immersion meets 
the seven requirements of baptism; but affu- 
sion only meets one; therefore immersion is 
baptism. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



DESIGN OF BAPTISM. 



Baptism must have a purpose, or it would 
have no place in the scheme of redemption. 
What is that purpose? In connection with 
faith and repentance, the Book teaches that 
it is "for the remission of sins." This ought 
to settle the matter with Bible believers, but 
it does not. Many of them believe that men 
are saved without baptism, and that it has 
no connection with ''remission of sins." Their 
theory is based on a certain class of Scriptures. 
Let us examine this 

OPPOSING THEORY. 

'* He that belie veth on him is not condemned " 
(John iii. 18), and ''he that believeth on 
the Son hath everlasting life" (John iii. 36), 
are fair samples of the Scriptures used as a basis 
for this theory. It is argued that since one is 
not condemned when he believes, and as in the 
absence of condemnation he is pardoned, there- 
fore faith is the sole condition of salvation. 

Over against these passages let a few others 

159 



160 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

be placed. '^Many other signs truly did Jesus 
in the presence of his disciples which are not 
written in this book ; but these are written that 
ye might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son 
of God; and that believing, ye might have 
life through his name" (John xx. 30). ''He 
came unto his own, and his owtl received him 
not, but as many as received him, to them 
gave he power [or the right or privilege] to 
become the sons of God" (John i. 11, 12). 
Here we are taught, not that the believer is 
saved, but that he has the right, privilege and 
power of being saved. I am not an English- 
man, but I have the right, privilege and power 
of becoming one if I choose. When it is 
declared that my attitude to England gives 
me the privilege of becoming an Englishman, 
it is also clearly implied that I am noi an 
Englishman. 

''Thou belie vest that there is one God, thou 
doest well: the devils also beUeve and tremble" 
(James ii. 19). Here is faith so strong that it 
makes even a devil tremble, but he is not 
pardoned. 

"Ye see then how by works [obedience] a 
man is justified, and not by faith only'' (James 
ii. 24) . This clear statement needs no comment. 



I'IRST PRINCIPLES 161 

The fundamental trouble with this theory 
is that it does not go far enough. It stops 
with one of the conditions of pardon. Faith 
is all right, but it is not the only condition of 
salvation. A Frenchman twenty-one years of 
age asks how old a man must be in this country 
in order to vote. You tell him twenty-one 
years. He hurries to the voting-place and asks 
for the privilege of suffrage, but is -denied. 
Why? Not because he has not one of the 
qualifications of an American voter, and a 
most important one, but because he has only 
one. He must comply with all the conditions 
of the law of suffrage, or he can not vote. He 
must not scrap this law. And so we must not 
scrap the Scriptures on the subject of pardon. 
We must believe, we must repent, and we must 
be baptized. By scrapping the Scriptures we 
can prove anything. ''Judas went out and 
hanged himself;" ''Go thou and do hkewise/' 
"What thou doest, do quickly." This is all 
Scripture, and, scrapped in this way, it teaches 
us to commit suicide, and to do it just as soon as 
possible. 

THE TRUE THEORY. 

1. It is not that baptism alone is for the 



162 FIRST PRINXIPLES 

remission of sins. In fact, in the Bible sense 
of the term, there can be no such thing as 
baptism T\ithout faith, repentance, love of 
God, holy purposes, etc. A man T\dthout these 
quahfications might be buried in water a 
thousand times, but it would not be Bible 
baptism. That is the reason why we do not 
baptize babies. They can not exercise these 
spiritual c|ualifications which must go before 
and prepare the subject for baptism. Water 
in the abstract is absolutely without value in 
Christian baptism. 

2. It is not that no one iinhaptized can he saved. 
Infants die by the millions and go to heaven 
-without baptism. Idiots do not need to be 
baptized. It is easy to conceive a penitent 
man so situated physically that baptism would 
be impossible. In that case he would be saved 
\\dthout it. T\Tiere there is no ability there is no 
responsihility. The true theory contemplates 
a penitent behever who can, if he T\ill, obey the 
Lord in the ordinance of baptism. 

PROOFS OF THIS THEORY. 

''Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye 
should be ignorant, how that all our fathers 
were under the cloud, and all passed through 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 163 

the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in 
the cloud and in the sea" (I. Cor. x. 2). The 
bondage of Egypt was a type of the bondage 
of sin; the deliverance of Israel from this bond- 
age by Moses was a type of the deliverance of 
the world from the bondage of sin; Moses as a 
leader w^as a type of Jesus Christ; and baptism 
into Moses was typical of baptism into Christ. 
When, then, were the Israelites made free? 
Not w^hen they began their march from Egypt; 
and not when they halted in front of the sea. 
The hosts of Pharaoh are close upon them, and 
all are filled with fear. But soon the sea is 
opened, and, obeying the command of their 
leader, they pass through it — are baptized unto 
Moses — and on the other side they realize their 
freedom, and sing the song of deliverance. And 
so when we forsake sin, and, in full assurance 
of faith, are baptized ''into Christ," we are 
pardoned and made free men in the Lord. But 
our freedom, as in the case of Israel, does not 
precede, but follows, our baptism. 

''The Uke figure whereunto even baptism 
doth also now save us (not the putting away 
of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a 
good conscience tow^ard God), by the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ" (I. Pet. iii. 21). Noah's 



164 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

salvation was from destruction by the waters 
of the flood. He did what God told iiim to 
do: prepared an ark, and Jehovah brought him 
safely through the waters, and on this side of 
them he rejoiced in salvation. And thus, Peter 
tells us that baptism saves us. But, lest we 
make a mistake, he says our baptism is not 'Hhe 
putting away of the filth of the flesh," as were 
the ceremonial dippings of the old covenant, 
''but the answer of a good conscience toward 
God." How " the answer of a good conscience"? 
The penitent man who is well taught knows 
that the Saviour says, ''He that believeth and 
is baptized shall be saved," and his conscience 
will never cease to chide so long as this known 
duty is neglected. 

"John did baptize in the wilderness, and 
preach the baptism of repentance for the remis- 
sion of sins" (Mark i. 4). "The baptism of 
repentance" is one which grows out of repent- 
ance; is produced because one is penitent, and 
such a baptism is for remission of sins. It is 
not baptism by itself, but baptism in connection 
with repentance. 

"Except a man be born of water and of 
the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom 
of God" (John iii. 5). Our sir.s are forgiven 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 165 

when we enter the kingdom of God; but the 
birth of water (baptism) and of the Spirit 
Ues between us and that kingdom, therefore 
this birth is for remission of sins. 

''As many of you as have been baptized 
into Christ have put on Christ^' (Gal. iii. 27). 
Out of Christ we are unsaved; in Christ we are 
saved; whatever, therefore, puts us in Christ 
is essential to salvation; baptism does this, 
hence it is for the remission of sins. 

''Not by works of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to his mercy 
he saved us by the washing of regeneration 
and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Tit. iii. 5). 
We are saved by the washing of regeneration; 
the washing of regeneration means baptism; 
therefore baptism is for the remission of sins. 

"Go ye into all the world and preach the 
gospel to every creature; he that believeth and 
is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth 
not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 15, 16). This 
passage is of special importance because it is 
the commission under which salvation is to be 
offered to the world. And we should rejoice 
that its terms are so simple that all can under- 
stand them. The gospel is to be preached; 
those who believe it and are baptized shall be 



166 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

saved; therefore baptism is necessary to salva- 
tion. It may be suggested that it only says that 
"he that helieveth not shall be damned," not 
he that believeth not and is not baptized. That 
is true. The unbeliever will be lost, whether 
baptized or not. As already shown, there can 
be no baptism without faith. The man who 
loves a good woman and is married is happy, 
but the man who loves not is miserable. This 
is true of him, whether married or not, hence 
the phrase '^and is married" need not be 
repeated in order to describe his condition. 
There can be no true marriage without love, 
and there can be no Bible baptism without 
faith, hence the awful truth is that the unbeliever 
is lost, and the man who loves not is not happy. 
"Men and brethren, what shall we do? 
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be_ 
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall 
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts ii. 
37, 38). This Scripture is also of special im- 
portance because it is a part of the first ser- 
mon preached under the commission of our 
Lord, and it was preached by a man supernat- 
urally guided, so that a mistake was impossible. 
The language is as simple as the world ever 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 167 

heard. The audience was convicted of the 
crime of murdering Jesus of Nazareth, the Son 
of Go d, and in their desperation they cried out 
to know what they should do. The answer 
is, ''Repent, and be baptized." But that is 
not all. This was to be done ''in the name of 
Jesus Christ," this man whom you have mur- 
dered. And this is not all. He next tells them 
the purpose of this repentance and baptism: 
it is for the "remission of sins." And even 
this is not all: and he connects with it the 
promise of the indwelling Spirit: '"and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." 

We must hear J. S. Sweeney on this passage. 
"Does this language of Peter make baptism a 
condition precedent to remission of sins? We 
say it does, and here we will stand or fall. The 
controversy hinges on the meaning of the word 
'for.' We say it means in order to, while it 
is contended by our opponents that its sense 
is because of. It will be granted that it some- 
times has the meaning we give it in this 
case ; and we are ready to admit that it som e- 
times means because of. And what is here 
said of 'for' may be truly said of the Greek 
word it represents. Then, can w^e ascertain 
what the word means m this passage? Happily 



168 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

for the truth, there is a circumstance in the 
case which enables us to determine this question. 
It is this: the relation which 'for' expresses 
here between baptism and remission, is the 
same that repentance sustains to remission, 
the relation of both to remission being expressed 
at once by the same v/ord; therefore that 
relation is one. The law to the believer is, 
'Repent, and be baptized for the remission 
of sins!' Will any one say that we may read, 
'Repent, and be baptized because of the remission 
of sins'? Does any one believe in repentance 
because of remission of sins? No one so believes. 
The relation of repentance to remission is that 
of a precedent to a subsequent. But the re- 
lation of baptism must be the same, for it is 
expressed by the same word, and at the same 
time; therefore the relation of baptism to 
the remission of sins is that of a precedent to 
a consequent.^' 

''And now why tarriest thou? Arise and 
be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling 
on the name of the Lord" (Acts xxii. 16). 
Saul, the mighty persecutor, was still in his 
sins; he was told to wash them away (figur- 
atively, of course) in baptism; therefore bap- 
tism is for the remission of sins. 



FIRST PRINX'IPLES 169 

Let us obey the wJiole law of pardon, lest the 
Jate of Eden fall upon us. A false teacher 
entered the beautiful garden and told Adam 
and Eve that it was not necessary to do all 
God said. Most likely he told them that the 
clause prohibiting the eating of fruit from a 
certain tree was arbitrary, unreasonable and 
unphilosophic. They heeded his voice, and dis- 
regarded a plain command; not plainer, how- 
ever, than baptism is to us, and they fell, and 
brought death into the world with all its 
woe. May this warning make us wise. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SUBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 



Having found that the baptism of the Bible 
is immersion, we now ask, Who should be 
baptized? There are two answers to this 
question: (1) Penitent believers, and (2) infants 
not old enough to believe. Those giving the 
second answer, of course, do not oppose the 
baptism of believers. In fact, the baptism of 
penitent believers, like immersion, is not in 
controversy. It is common ground. Only the 
second answer is in debate, and to its discussion 
we now proceed. 

IDENTITY OF THE COVENANTS. 

This is the first argument generally used 
in support of infant baptism. It is claimed 
that the covenants of the Old and New Testa- 
ments are the same, and that as there were 
infants in the first, there are also infants in 
the second. Dr. McLean, speaking of the day 
of Pentecost, says: ''The language is such as 
would be used of the continuance of the Old 
Testament church. . . . This church was 

170 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 171 

now changed from a Jewish to the Christian 
church." In reply to this let it be said: 

1. There was no true church during Old Testa- 
ment times. The people of Israel in the wilder- 
ness were not the church in the Christian sense 
of the term, but only in the sense that they 
were called out from Egj^pt and made a sepa- 
rate body. The conditions of membership did 
not involve piety, change of heart, etc. They 
were not required to be horn again (John iii. 5) 
as in the Christian church. They were in a 
large measure idolaters. It w^ould be much 
more in harmony with the facts to call them 
not a church, but the commonwealth of Israel, 
a semi-religious institution into which men 
could enter and remain without spiritual re- 
quirements. Infants were in that commonweal t h 
just as they are in the commonwealth of Texas. 

It is a very significant fact that the King 
James translators do not give us the word 
''church" in the whole of the Old Testament; 
and not in the New until the sixteenth chapter 
of Matthew. This shows that they were 
unwilling to identify anything found in Israel 
with the New Testament idea of the church. 

2. The church had not been built during the 
'personal ministry of Christ. ''But whom say 



172 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and 
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the hving 
God. And Jesus answered, and said unto him, 
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
Father who is in heaven. And I say also unto 
thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock 
[your confession] I will huild my church" (Matt, 
xvi. 15-18). This is fifteen hundred years after 
the Israelites had been called out of Egypt, 
and still the church is a thing of the future. 
According to this theory, it was then old — 
fifteen centuries old; but according to the facts 
as gleaned from the Saviour, it was still to be 
built. Suppose the reader should say to a friend, 
as he pointed to a foundation, ''On this foun- 
dation I will huild my house," would it be 
reasonable to understand him to mean that he 
Avould remodel an old house already built? 
Certainly not. And yet this language is not 
stronger than the language of the Saviour. 

3. Differences between the covenants. ''Behold, 
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make 
a new covenant with the house of Israel, and 
with the house of Judah; not according to the 
covenant that I made with their fathers in the 
day that I took them by the hand to bring them 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 173 

out of the land of Egypt; which covenant 
they brake, although I was an husband unto 
them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the 
covenant that I will make with the house of 
Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will 
put my law in their inw^ard parts, and write it 
in their hearts; and will be their God, and 
they shall be my people. And they shall teach 
no more every man his neighbour, and every 
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for 
they shall all know me, from the least of them 
unto the greatest of them, for I will forgive 
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin 
no more" (Jer. xxxi. 31-34). 

Here is a promise six hundred years before 
Christ that " Si new covenant" w^ould be made. 
Turning to Hebrews viii., w^e find that the 
promise was fulfilled. (Please stop and read 
this chapter.) And as you read, note these 
words: ''In that he saith, A new covenant, he 
hath made the first old. Now that which 
decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish 
away." Such language would not be used in 
connection with the ''continuance of the Old 
Testament church." It is a "neio covenant" 
— not a renewed one, which was promised and 
given. Let us note the points of difference: 



174 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

1. In the new the law was to be in the ^^ mind " 
and ''heart/' Not necessarily so in the old, 
as we have already seen. 

2. ''I will be to them a God, and they di 11 
be to me a people." This means no mere 
idolatry, the besetting sin of the old. 

3. In the new ''all shall know me from the 
least to the greatest." This excludes infanl.^^ 

4. In the new: "Their sins and their iniq- 
uities will I remember no more." Under the 
old, there was no full forgiveness, for the blood 
of bulls and goats could not take awa}^ sins. 
(See Heb. x. 15.) 

After the promise that " a new covenant " 
would be made, and after the declaration that 
the promise had been fulfilled, and after noting 
these remarkable differences between the two, 
it is difficult to see how any one could conclude 
that the Christian Church is a "continuance 
of the Old Testament church." 

4. The circumcision argument. Parents under 
the Old Testament covenant were commanded 
to circumcise their children, and the church 
being the same in all ages, parents to-day 
should give their children the seal of the cove- 
nant, which is baptism. 

Replying to this old argument, let it be said: 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 175 

1. Only male children were circumcised (Gen. 
xvii. 10); but both sexes are baptized. 

2. They were circumcised when eight days 
old (Gen. xvii. 12); but no particular age is 
observed in infant baptism. 

3. If uncircumcised, the child was ''cut off 
from his people" (Gen. xvii. 14), but in the 
new covenant Paul says, ''If ye be circumcised, 
Christ shall profit you nothing" (Gal. v. 2). 
This reminds us of the old stanza: 

"You shall and you shan't; 
You will and you won't: 
You'U be damned if you do; 
You'll be damned if you don't." 

4. If baptism has come and taken the place 
of circumcision, it is strange that the 
famous Jerusalem council (Acts xv.) did not 
so declare. The matter was before them, for 
in their decision, which was scattered broad- 
cast among the churches, it is said: "Foras- 
much as we have heard that certain which 
went out from us have troubled you, saying, 
Ye must be circumcised and keep the law," 
etc. (verse 24). How easy and natural for 
them, if such was the case, to have settled this 
troublesome matter for all time by saying that 
Ijaptism in the new covenant takes the place 



176 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

of circumcision in the old. But they did not 
say it, and that proves, v/ith the force of a 
demonstration, that it is not true. 

5. What, then, is true? '^He is not a Jew 
which is one outwardly; neither is that circum- 
cision which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a 
Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision 
is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the 
letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God'' 
(Rom. ii. 28, 29). The circumcision of the old 
covenant was of the flesh, but that of the new is 
of the heart, and hence w^e have both it and 
baptism in the new; the one using the blood of 
Christ and the other the baptismal w^aters; 
the one pertaining to the heart and the other to 
the flesh. 

HOUSEHOLD BAPTISMS. 

This argument for infant baptism was so 
completely overturned by L. B. Wilkes in the 
Louisville Debate that I give it to the reader: 

'To demonstrate infant baptism from house- 
hold baptism my friend must adopt and defend 
the two following syllogisms: All households 
have infants in them; the apostles baptized 
some households; therefore the apostles bap- 
tized infants. 



FIRST prixc:tples 177 

Now observe, if the major premise is not true, 
that alt households have infants in them, house- 
holds might have been baptized, and yet no 
infants baptized. The minor premise is true, 
that the apostles baptized some households; 
but it does not follow, since the major premise 
is known to be false, that infants were bap- 
tized. The major premise must be true, and the 
minor must be true, else the conclusion sought 
to be arrived at does not follow. Yet the con- 
clusion is precisely what my friend is com- 
pelled to prove, or what he has undertaken 
to prove. 

His statement is that infant baptism is author- 
ized by the word of God. This will require 
another syllogism, growing out of the previ- 
ous one; viz.: If the apostles baptized any in- 
fants, then infant baptism is authorized by the 
word of God. The apostles did baptize some 
infants; therefore infant baptism is authorized 
by the word of God. The minor premise states 
that they did baptize some infants, and the 
conclusion is that, therefore, infant baptism is 
authorized by the word of God. But, in order 
to reach this conclusion, it must be shown that 
there are infants in all households, which we 
know is not true. If there were infants in all 



178 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

households, then, by proving that the apostles 
baptized households, it would follow that they 
baptized infants; but since we know that there 
are households with no infants in them, it does 
not follow that the apostles baptized infants 
from the fact that they baptized households." 

This logic is conclusive, and the case might rest 
here ; but we will corroborate it by an examina- 
tion of some of these households. In the house- 
hold of Cornelius (Acts x. 46) they heard, they 
spoke with tongues, and they magnified God; 
hence there were no infants there. In the house- 
hold of Lydia (Acts xvi. 15, 40) all were old 
enough to be comforted by the words of the 
apostle; hence there were no infants there. 
In the case of the jailor (Acts xvi. 34) all rejoiced 
and believed; hence there were no infants there. 
In the case of Crispus (Acts xviii. 8) all believed; 
hence there were no infants there. And in 
the case of Stephanas (I. Cor. i. 16; xvi. 15) 
they ''addicted [gave] themselves to the min- 
istry;" hence there were no infants there. And 
so of the other households. 

Let us close this refutation by an appeal to 
modern experience. An Illinois preacher has 
baptized three households of jailors in which 
were no infants. Another has baptized ten 



FIRST PRINXIPLES 179 

households, and yet he never baptized an infant. 
And doubtless hundreds of my readers have 
had much the same experience. 

OBJECTIONS TO INFANT BAPTISM. 

1. It reverses the divine order. ''When there- 
fore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had 
heard that Jesus made and baptized more dis- 
ciples," etc. (John iv. 1). ''Go ye therefore 
and teach [make disciples] all nations, baptizing 
them," etc. (Matt, xxviii. 19). These Scrip- 
tures show that the order of the Saviour in his 
work, and the order- to be followed by the 
apostles in theirs, was to teach first, and then 
baptize the taught. The commission, according 
to the theory of infant baptism, should read, 
"Go ye therefore and baptize all nations, and 
then teach them," etc. 

2. It obliterates the distinction between the 
church and the world. If infant baptism, from 
this day, should become universal, and should 
so continue for a single generation, every infant 
having been baptized, the church and the world 
would be one, and the spiritual distinction which 
God desires to exist between them, would be 
blotted out. 

3. // does no good. AMiat does a child gain 



180 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

by being baptized which it might not gain 
without baptism? What does it lose without 
baptism that it might not lose with it? AVhat 
is either gained or lost in time or eternity by 
having the child baptized, or by a failure to 
have it baptized? Whether baptized or not, 
it is saved ; hence its baptism is both meaningless 
and profitless. Two little children, pure as when 
God gave them to the earth, are sleeping side 
by side in the cemetery; one w^as baptized, 
and the other was not. What difference did 
it make in this life? and what difference will 
it make in the life beyond? 

4. It ignores the power of choice. This is 
one of our royal privileges. We are not ma- 
chines, driven or dragged hither and thither 
according to the whims and caprices of another ; 
but we are men made in the image of God, and 
endowed with the power of saying ''Yes" or 
''No" even to our Maker. But infant baptism 
ignores this high prerogative, and the child is 
baptized whether it wills or not, and generally 
much against its will. Suppose a young man 
should attend a series of meetings, but would 
not become a Christian. After much teaching, 
preaching and exhortation have failed, a num- 
ber of his friends seize him, and, against his 



FIRST PRIXCIPI.ER 181 

most earnest protest, baptize him. Every one 
would call this an outrage, and such it would be. 
But how much worse to baptize against his will 
one who weighs 150 pounds, or one of half that 
weight? You answer that the cases are the 
same. Well, how much worse to baptize one 
of seventy-five pounds against his will than one 
of 100 pounds? The answer is that they are 
both equally bad. Then, if it is wrong to bap- 
tize one of 100 pounds against his will, how can 
it be right to baptize one of ten pounds? 



CHAPTER XV. 



EVIDENCE OF PARDON. 



When a child does wrong, sees his error, 
repents, and asks forgiveness, can he not, and 
should he not, know whether he has been for- 
given? It would seem that a good father 
w^ould so speak to his penitent boy as not to 
leave him in doubt. And will our Father in 
heaven do less? Surely not. And therefore 
I believe that when we repent of our sins, and 
turn to him for forgiveness, he will speak to us 
in words so simple and clear that we know we 
have been pardoned. 

This conclusion is reached in another way: 
God wants us to be happy; but this can not be 
without a knowledge of forgiveness; therefore 
he will furnish us that knowledge. Should 
this penitent boy be in doubt as to his forgive- 
ness, to the extent of that doubt he would be 
unhappy. Hear his sad soHloquy: ''At times 
I think father has forgiven me, but often I 
doubt, hence my joy fluctuates with every phase 
of hope. Oh that I had something solid on 

which to rest this hope!" And when he sings, 

182 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 183 

his favorite song will be the one which I used 
to sing when groping in darkness and doubt at 
this very point: 

" 'Tis a point I long to know, 

And oft it causes anxious thought; 
Do I love the Lord or no? 
Am I his or am I not?" 

An additional proof of this point is found in 
the New Testament teachings, where all is the 
most confident assurance. ''We are alw^ays 
coiLfident, knowing that while we are at home 
in the body we are absent from the Lord'' 
(II. Cor. V. 6). ''Being then ynade free from 
sin, ye become the servants of righteousness" 
(Rom. vi. 18). "In whom we have redemption 
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins'' (Eph. 
i. 7). "Knowing, brethren beloved, your elec- 
tion of God" (I. Thess. i. 4). "Wherefore 
the rather, brethren, give diligence to make 
your calling and election sure" (II. Pet. i. 10). 
"Hereby we do knoio that w^e know him, if wt 
keep his commandments" (I. John i. 3). "Be- 
loved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear w^hat we shall be: but w^e know 
that w^hen we shall appear, we shall be like 
him; for we shall see him as he is " (I. John iii. 2). 
"We know that we have passed from death 



184 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

unto life, because we love the brethren" (I. 
John iii. 14). Not a single note of doubt or 
uncertainty here, but all the language of 
confidence. 

But how may we secure this knowledge and 
enjoy this assurance? In order to this, let it be 
remembered that this is not a question of dreams 
or fleshly sensations, but one of fact, and as 
such it must be settled by testimony. And 
Paul furnishes the key to the problem in these 
words: '^The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit, that we are the children of God" 
(Rom. viii. 16). Note the fact that there are 
two witnesses, and not one, as many suppose. 
God-s Spirit does not testify to our spirit, but 
the two spirits testify jointly. If I testify to 
you, there is but one witness; but if I testify 
with you, there are two. 

CHARACTER AND METHOD OF THE WITNESSES. 

1. God's Spirit. When the lawyer shows 
that the witnesses against his client are not 
reliable, his case is safe, regardless of their 
testimony. But if this can not be done, and 
the testimony is conclusive, the case is lost. 
Let the same rule apply here; and in its appli- 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 185 

cation we ask, (1) Is the witness trustworthy? 
and (2), How does he testify? 

AppUed to God's Spirit, the first question 
can not be discussed. His is the Spirit of 
truth, the fountain of all spiritual knowledge, 
and hence it can not be doubted. We therefore 
raise the second question, How does he testify? 
'' But when they deliver you up, take no thought 
how or what ye shall speak ; for it shall be given 
you in that same hour what ye shall speak, for 
it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 
Father which speaketh in you^' (Matt. x. 18-20). 
This teaches that the Spirit testifies through 
words. 

''Which things also we speak, not in the 
words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which 
the Holy Spirit teacheth" (I. Cor. ii. 13, 14). 
Here again this witness testifies in words. Hav- 
ing ascertained that the first witness is reliable, 
and that he testifies through words, we next 
inquire as to 

2. Man's spirit. Possibly some reader ques- 
tions the fact that man's spirit witnesses to 
himself. Let us hear Paul again: ''I say. 
the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience 
also hearing me witness in the Holy Spirit " 
(Rom. ix. 1). The same verb is used here as 



186 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

in Rom. i. 16. Is this witness also reliable? 
Can we rest confidently on this testimony as 
on the other? A man murdered his wife. 
Suborned witnesses, skilfully instructed by a 
shrewd lawyer, proved that he was forty miles 
from her, at the time of the murder, and there- 
fore innocent. But the spirit of the man knew 
the testimony was false, and that he was guilty. 
And if the angels and the redeemed had cor- 
roborated the false witnesses, the spirit of the 
man would still have remained the same. And 
upon the other hand, if that husband had been 
innocent, no amaunt of testimony could have 
convinced his spirit of guilt. This great question 
did not depend on outside testimony. And thus 
it is seen that the spirit of man is trustworthy. 

A word of caution: I do not mean to say 
that one may not do wrong, and still have his 
spirit encourage him in the wrong. This will be 
clear a little later. I only mean to teach that his 
spirit^s testimony is always in harmony with the 
facts as it knows them. If a child knows nothing 
but affusion as baptism, its spirit will testify in 
favor of affusion. But let the facts be fully 
given, and it will declare for immersion. Is not 
this the highest type of a witness? 

How does this witness testify? Like God^s 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 187 

Spirit it testifies through words, or their equiva- 
lents. A man is before a jury. He knows 
all the facts in the case pending. But he refuses 
to speak in answer to the questions of counsel 
and court. How long will it require to ascer- 
tain the testimony of his spirit? It can never 
be known until he chooses to coin it into words. 
Two important questions are now settled, 
viz. : Both of our witnesses are absolutely relia- 
ble, and both testify, not through fleshly sensa- 
tions, dreams, etc., but through words. Well 
may we tremble if the testimony is against us; 
and well may we rejoice if it be in our favor. 

WHAT IS THIS TESTIMONY? 

1. It is not a new revelation. Many expect 
Christ to speak to them to-day as he did to the 
timid woman who touched his garment (Matt, 
ix. 20), saying, '^Thy faith hath made thee 
whole;" or to the palsied penitent (Mark ii. 5), 
saying, ''Son, thy sins be forgiven thee;'' or to 
the dying thief (Luke xxiii. 43), saying, ''To- 
day thou shalt be with me in paradise." The 
written word as found in the Bible is not enough. 
They expect the still small voice to make a new 
revelation to them. They seem never to have 
read these plain words :" According as his divine 



ISS FIRST PRINCIPLES 

power hath given unto us all things that pertain 
unto life and godliness," etc. (II. Pet. i. 3). 
Notice the time of the verb: ^'hath given/' not 
will give. Almost two thousand years ago *'all 
things" pertaining unto life and godliness had 
been given ; the forgiveness of sins pertains unto 
"life and godhness;" therefore all things on 
that subject have already been given. Why ex- 
pect a new revelation? It is as inu'easonable 
as to expect a special telegram to confirm a well- 
attested letter from a friend. If you will not 
believe his letter, what evidence has he that you 
will believe his telegram? If we will not believe 
t he word of God in the Bible, why would we be- 
lieve a special message from the same source? 
2. // is not our feelings. Multitudes rest 
this great matter on the frail basis of fieshly 
feelings. If they feel good, they are forgiven; 
if they feel bad, they are unforgiven. They 
forget that feelings are largely dependent on 
health, the weather, our surroundings, etc. But 
salvation is indei)endent of all these. We may 
be saved in health or in sickness; in good weather 
or bad; and in spite of surroundings. They 
forget, also, that feelings are deceptive. As 
Jacob listened to the false reports of his sinful 
boys, and looked upon the bloody coat of Joseph, 



FIRST PRIN'CIPLES 189 

he felt that his child was dead. But his feehngs 
deceived him. They seem not to understand 
that feehngs are an effect, and not a cause. 
God forgives. This is a cause. The forgiven 
soul is happy. This is the result. We do not 
know we are forgiven because we are happy, 
but we are happy because we know we are for- 
given. But let no one conclude that we ignore, 
or even place a light estimate on, feelings. A 
religion that does not make one feel happy, is 
a false religion. When God forgives, every 
emotion of the soul leaps for joy, and the lips 
sing the praises of Jehovah. 

3. It is not our sincerity. Jacob was sincere 
when he said his boy was dead, and that he 
would see him no more this side the grave. 
Paul was as sincere when persecuting the church 
as he was later, when he defended it, and gave 
his life as a sacrifice for Christ. Can you not 
recall cases in your own life, and in the lives of 
your friends, in which you were sincerely in the 
wrong? This fine element of character — sin- 
cerity — is found alike in the bosoms of those 
whose causes are just, and those whose causes 
are unjust, and hence it proves only the moral 
integrity of the man, and not the righteous- 
ness of his cause. 



190 TIRST PRINCIPLES 

If the evidence of pardon is not in a new reve- 
lation, and not in feelings, and not in sincerity, 
what is it? 

4. It is the joint testimony of these two wit- 
nesses, the one pointing out the way to pardon, 
and the other assuring us that we have walked in 
that way. God's Spirit says we must believe, 
which changes the heart; and man's spirit says 
he has believed. God's Spirit says we must 
repent, which changes the life ; and man's spirit 
says he has repented. God's Spirit says we 
must be baptized, which changes the state or 
relationship; and man's spirit says he has been 
baptized. And when changed in heart, life and 
relationship, he is " Si new creature in Christ 
Jesus." 

Now that we have this vital point made clear 
as sunlight, imagine an honest and intelligent 
Christian testing himself. He looks within and 
asks himself if he has believed; and the answer 
is instantaneous, and without one vestige of 
doubt, that he does believe. There is no more 
doubt on this point than there is as to his exist- 
ence. He knows that he is a believer. Look- 
ing within again, he asks himself as to his repent- 
ance; and the answer is as prompt and as free 
from doubt as before, that he has repented. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 191 

Continufng his investigation, he next asks 
whether he has been baptized ; and the response 
is again ready and satisfactory. Knowing that 
there was doubt in the minds of many as to 
affusion for baptism, he had taken the safe side 
of the question and was immersed. 

In thus being baptized of his own accord, 
he avoids another insuperable difficulty. Sup- 
posing he had been baptized in infancy, when 
the question on this subject was asked, there 
could have been no satisfactory answer. The 
best answer possible would have been that his 
mother told him that he had been baptized. 
As for himself, he knew nothing on the subject, 
for at the time it took place he was too young 
to know anything about it. But this does not 
meet the requirements of the case. The Spirit 
of God and the spirit of the man himself, and not 
that of his mother, are to bear joint personal 
testimony in this matter. No one baptized 
in infancy can ever know through the testimony 
of his own spirit that he has obeyed his Saviour 
in this sacred ordinance. This fact should open 
the eyes of many pious people, and cause them 
to restudy the baptismal question. 

Having learned with certainty what is re- 
quired in order to pardon, and having learned 



192 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

with equal certainty that he has comphed with 
these requirements, the question is settled. 
To doubt now is either to question his own 
consciousness, or to disbelieve the word of God. 
And while reason reigns and rules he can not 
do the former, and until he becomes an infidel, 
he can not do the latter. 

A PICTURE. 

A man is in the penitentiary. His friends 
petition the governor, and he is pardoned on 
certain conditions. With a happy heart he 
starts to his home. The sheriff of his county, 
not knowing of his pardon, meets him on the 
highway, and commands him to halt. ^'Why 
do you halt me?" says the man; '^I have been 
pardoned." ''What evidence can you give of 
your pardon?" answers the sheriff. ''Well, 
Mr. Sheriff," says the man, "it is a strange 
story I have to tell, but it is true. Last 
night about twelve o'clock, when all was dark 
and still in my cell, suddenly a light brighter 
than yonder sun shone about me, and I heard 
a voice saying, ' John Smith, you are a pardoned 
man.' " The sheriff coolly responds: "I've no 
doubt you think you saw and heard all this, 
and doubtless it would be all right in religious 



FIRST PRLN'CIPLES 193 

circles, but it is a little too fanciful for the 
courts of Caesar, and you may consider your- 
self under arrest." But the man, laying his 
hand on his heart, continues, ''Mr. SherifT, 1 
feel that I am pardoned." ''I do not question 
your feelings," answers the sensible but not 
over-sentimental sheriff, ''but feelings, like vis- 
ions and voices, are not good evidence in our 
courts," and he is about to proceed with his pris- 
oner to the jail. "Hold, Mr. Sheriff !" cries 
the man with much vehemence, "I declare to 
you that I am thoroughly honest and sincere!" 
"That may be true," replies the officer, "but 
like everything else you've said, it is unsatisfac- 
tory as evidence in our courts, and therefore 
it is my duty to arrest you;" and his stern face 
indicates business; when the ex-convict pulls 
from his pocket a paper, saying, "Here is evi- 
dence which I know you'll accept." And it 
proves to be a pardon from Governor Lan- 
ham, of Texas, bearing the seal of the State, 
in which the man is pardoned provided that on 
or before 1 p. m. of Dec. 1, 1903, he leaves the 
State, and never more returns. "This is all 
right," says the sheriff. "Why did you not 
show it at first and save all this trouble?" 
At 12:30 p. M., December 1, ho crosses the 



194 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

Rio Grande River at El Paso, and takes up his 
abode in Mexico. You meet him an hour 
later, and asks him if he has been pardoned. 
What would he say? Would he answer that 
he thought so? he hoped so? he felt so? Cer- 
tainly not. His answer would be prompt, 
clear and positive. He would say, ^'Yes.'' 
And then, if you should ask for the evidence 
on which he based this confident answer, he 
would tell you that Governor Lanham promised 
him pardon on certain conditions, and that he 
had complied with those conditions. The 
spirit of the Governor, the pardoning power, 
had named the conditions of pardon, and the 
spirit of the man assured him that he had faith- 
fully observed them; and therefore he had the 
highest possible evidence of forgiveness. Let 
the Governor represent God, and the pardoned 
man the sinner, and we have not only a true 
picture of this most important principle, but 
one so simple that all can understand. 



CHAPTER XVT. 



thp: true church. 



A bright little boy, whose parents were in 
different churches, was walking hand in hand 
with his father to Sunday-school, when the 
bell of his mother's church began to ring. 
Puzzled in heart, he looked up into his father's 
face, and asked, ''Papa, why did God put mam- 
ma's church at one place, and your church at 
another?''' A painful and most natural question 
was this, and showing in the clearest way pos- 
sible that something is radically wrong in the 
present divided condition of God's people. 
Many ''babes in Christ," loving God and long- 
ing to serve him, are bewildered and hindered 
in much the same way. Their parents are in 
different churches, and their friends and asso- 
ciates are in others still, and these little ones 
do not know w^hat to do. If they join one 
church it seems to reflect on all others, and 
hence they often stop at this point, and soon 
drift back into a life of worldliness. 

Such a situation is serious, and fraught with 

much danger to precious souls for whom Christ 

195 



196 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

died; but no one need be discouraged. A 
careful study of the Book, coupled with the 
courage of one's convictions, will solve the 
problem. Let us attempt thus to solve it. 
In this book we will find that the true church 
has certain '^ear-marks" by which it can be 
easily identified. What are some of these? 

1. The foundation. About seven hundred 
years before Christ, the Lord said, '^ Behold, 
I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried 
stone, a sure foundation" (Isa. xxviii. 16). 
During the personal ministry of the Saviour, 
when Peter had declared that He was 'Hhe 
Christ, the Son of the Hving God,'' He said, 
''Upon this rock I will build my church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" 
(Matt. xvi. 13-18). And Paul, sixty years 
after Christ, says: ''Other foundation can 
no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus 
Christ" (I. Cor. iii. 11). These three Scrip- 
tures, to name no others, make it clear that 
Christ is the foundation. This is the great 
fundamental proposition in Christianity. If 
true, all is true, and if false, all is false. It 
is not only fundamental, but it is all-com- 
prehensive, embracing every minor question 
in the Christian life. It is the center around 



FIRST PI{1\CIPLES 197 

which all circles, and the foundation on which 
all rests. David James Burrell says: ''The 
engineers of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 
by sinking shafts and opening galleries along 
the walls of the temple, came upon the original 
foundationig. They are seventy feet below 
the surface, and rest upon the rocky slopes of 
Moriah. At the lowest angle of this temple 
area they discovered the corner-stone. It was 
four feet thick and fourteen broad, and its 
fine finish was almost unimpaired. It is not 
improbable that the prophet Isaiah had this 
very stone in mind when he uttered the Mes- 
sianic prediction, 'Behold, I lay in Zion for 
a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a pre- 
cious corner-stone.' The first place, deepest 
do^Mi, most rudimental and fundamental, bind- 
ing the walls together and upholding the 
whole — this is reserved for Christ." 

2. The place. ''Out of Zion shall go forth 
the law, and the word of the Lord from Jeru- 
salem'' (Isa. ii. 3). All agree that the prophet 
here locates the place at which the church 
was to be organized, which is Jerusalem. The 
Saviour confirms this opinion in a way which 
leaves no doubt: "Thus it is written, and 
thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise 



198 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

from the dead the third day: and that repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached 
in his name among all nations, beginning at 
Jerusalem^' (Luke xxiv. 46, 47). 

3. The time. There are many conflicting 
theories here. One is that the church was 
organized in Eden, with two members: Adam 
and Eve. Another claim that it was later: 
in the time of Abraham. And still another 
locates it in the days of John the Baptist — 
all of which I am sure is wrong. 

Long after the first two theories, and re- 
ferring to the kings of Babylon, Medo-Persia, 
Greece and Rome, God says: ^'In the days of 
these kings shall the God of heaven set up 
a kingdom which shall never be destroyed" 
(Dan. ii. 44). Since the '^kingdom" here is 
the church to be built later, these first two 
positions fall to the ground. The Saviour, 
speaking on this identical question, L^ays: 
'^On this rock I ivill build my church'^ (Matt. 
xvi. 18). He refers not to what had already 
been done, but to what he would do in the 
future. This clearly shows the third theory 
to be false. You have in purpose a home. 
Work has already begun. The foundation is 
finished, and, pointing to it, you say to a 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 199 

friend, ''On this foundation I loill build my 
house." He could not possibly understand 
that it was already built; neither could he 
fail to understand it to be a thing of the future. 

Luke says: ''And great fear came upon all 
the church" (Acts v. 11). Here the church 
is spoken of as in existence. This is but a 
few years after Christ said he would build 
his church; so that somewhere during the 
narrow strip of time marked by Matt. xvi. 
18 and Acts v. 11, the church was organized. 
Now, turning back to the wonderful scenes 
at Pentecost (Acts ii.), when the first gospel 
sermon after the resurrection was preached, 
we find it recorded "that they that gladly 
received his word were baptized; and the same 
day there were added unto them about three 
thousand souls." And a few verses later 
it is said, "And the Lord added to the church 
daily such as were being saved." This seems to 
make it clear that the time is the first Pentecost 
after the resurrection of Christ. 

4. The law. No kingdom can exist mth- 
out law. Our own great nation would fall 
to pieces in a few days, but for its Consti- 
tution. The church, like the nation, is made 
up of an aggregation of individuals, and, 



200 FIEST PRINCIPLES 

therefore, it must have a law. That law is 
the word of its King found in the Bible. ''To 
the law and to the testimony: if they speak 
not according to this word, it is because there 
is no light in them" (Isa. viii. 20). This was 
the slogan of the Old Testament heroes as it 
is of the New, and to it we owe the marvelous 
preservation of our Bible. All other laws, 
born of men and not of God, originating on 
earth instead of in heaven, are to be discarded, 
and the old Book is to rule in this kingdom. 
Among the last words spoken to man was a 
solemn warning not to touch this law. ''If any 
man shall add unto these things, God will 
add unto him the plagues that are written 
in this book; and if any man take away from 
the words of the book of this prophecy, God 
shall take away his part out of the book of 
life, and out of the holy city, and from the 
things written in this book" (Rev. xxii. 18 
19).' 

5. The ordinances. There may be no or- 
dinances in heaven. When we lay aside this 
life of flesh, we will likely lay aside all earthly 
ordinances. But so long as we are in the 
flesh, ordinances will be necessary. How- 
ever good our Constitution, we find many 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 201 

ordinances essential to our national life. The 
true church has two. ''Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 
He that belie vet h and is baptized shall be 
saved; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned'' (Mark xvi. 15, 16). ''And as they 
were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, 
and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and 
said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he 
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it 
to them, saying. Drink ye all of it; for this 
is my blood of the New Testament, which is 
shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt, 
xxvi. 26-28). The first of these ordinances 
is for the man as he enters the church, and the 
second is for him as he develops in himself the 
Christian life. The one, like the oath of allegi- 
ance, or the marriage ceremony, is a public 
avowal of his purpose to be a Christian, and 
the other is a similiar avowal of his contin- 
ued faith, and also a feasting of the hun- 
gry soul on the cross of his Saviour. 

6. The name. Let us, on this point, hear 
from that great gospel preacher, Benjamin 
Franklin: "Any community labeled with some 
foreign name, or some name unknown to the 
New Covenant, must be a new and strange 



202 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

body. There must be a new idea, or some- 
thing different from the old community, to 
create the necessity for a new name. If we 
have nothing they did not have in apostoUc 
times, we need no other names than they 
had. If we have the kingdom of God, the 
church of God, the body of Christ, and noth- 
ing else, there is no need of calling it any- 
thing else. But the truth is, new names 
come from new ideas, and are intended to 
express something new. A man may read 
of the church of God, the body of Christ, the 
kingdom of God, etc., for a month, and it 
never suggests a Methodist Church, a Pres- 
byterian Church, or a Baptist Church, unless 
in contrast. He knows he is not reading 
about these latter bodies, as they were not 
in existence at the time of the writing. The 
new and foreign name shows that it does not 
refer to the body of Christ, but something 
else." 

The followers of Christ are called by sev- 
eral different names in the Bible, such as 
'^ disciples,'' "saints," '^ brethren," '^children 
of God," etc.; but the one distinctive and all- 
inclusive name is '^ Christian": ^'The disci- 
ples were called Christians first at Antioch" 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 203 

(Acts xi. 26). The church as a body also 
has different titles, such as '4he kingdom of 
God" (John iii. 3); ''the church of the 
living God" (I. Tim. iii. 15); ''one body" 
(Eph. iv. 4); "church of God" (Acts xx. 28); 
"churches of Christ" (Rom. xvi. 16). The 
phrase, "Christian Church," is much used by 
the best writers, as inclusive of all these titles, 
just as the name "Christian" includes all 
the individual designations. True, this phrase 
is not in the Bible in so many words, but it 
is faithful to the Bible thought. A regiment 
of Missourians is a Missouri regiment, and a 
church of Christ is a Christian church. The 
language, and not the thought, is changed. 
And let it never be forgotten that Christ is the 
bridegroom, and the church is the bride, and 
as a dutiful bride she will wear his name, and 
none other. 

The true church must have these six "ear- 
marks," or she can not establish her claim 
as the Bible church; but with them, cou- 
pled with holy living, that claim can never 
be overturned. Even though her history can 
not be traced step by step, as an organic body, 
back from this day to the day of her origin, 
still this high claim is not impaired. You lose a 



204 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

valuable horse, and advertise for him, giving 
six striking characteristics as a means of iden- 
tification. He is a chestnut sorrel, seven years 
old, sixteen hands high, has the letter C stamp- 
ed on the left jaw, hind feet white, and is a 
fast trotter. After six months a man from 
Texas answers the advertisement, saying that 
he thinks he has your horse. You go at once 
to identify him, and, finding that he answers 
the description perfectly, you claim him as 
your own. The fact that you knew nothing 
of his whereabouts during the six months 
would cut no figure in the case. You would 
like to know, but= the fact that you do not, 
does not vitiate your claims in the least. The 
one essential point is the presence of the six 
'^ ear-marks.'' And so the true church has 
been lost. It is impossible to trace her history, 
as we would like, from the time of her birth 
to the present. But in these latter days she 
has been reproduced, and is now in our midst, 
answering perfectly the description found in 
the Bible. She rests on Christ, the great 
God-man and the man-God, as her foundation; 
she was organized at Jerusalem on the first 
Pentecost after the resurrection, the place 
and time foretold by the prophets and their 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 205 

Lord; her law, like her Lord, is divine: it is 
the word of God; her ordinances are baptism 
and the Lord's Supper; and her name is '^Chris- 
tian/' the only ''name under heaven given 
among men, whereby we must be saved," 
and therefore she must be the true church. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



CHRISTIAN LIVING. 



All our preceding studies have dealt mainly 
with doctrinal questions closely related to 
conversion. We have tried to make clear 
the first steps of the young convert : so clear that 
wayfaring men, though- fools, need not err 
therein. Let us close, then, with a chapter 
on Christian living. A single chapter, not 
because this question is less important, for 
it is not, but because it has suffered less at 
the hands of speculative theologians, and 
hence does not need so much study to make 
it plain. 

Assuming that the young Christian has 
been properly led into the church, his next 
great purpose is to live faithfully the Chris- 
tian life. How shall this be done? He must 
have wholesome food, pure atmosphere and 
healthful exercise. 

FOOD. 

The spiritual life, like the physical, can not 
be strong without a sufficient supply of nu- 

206 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 207 

tritious food. Christ is the bread from heaven 
on which we are to feed. How shall we get 
this bread? 

1. By Bible study. Occasionally some ad- 
vanced (?) preacher cries out against '^Bib- 
liolatry/' the idolatry of the Bible. He seems 
to have met people who make too much of 
the Bible. Perhaps there are such people, 
but I have never met them. I would like 
to meet them. I would go a long way to 
see them. I would like them for neighbors. 
All the people I know make too little of this 
Book. They do not read it enough. It is 
through a proper study of the Bible that we 
find the Christ. Look at the gas. Whence 
its light and heat? You answer, ''From 
the coal."" The light and heat of the gas are 
the ancient light and heat of the sun, shining 
on the earth millions of years ago. The trees 
imbibed the light and heat, and locked them 
in their soft fibers; they were submerged and 
transformed into coal, but they still retained 
the light and heat with a firm grip;" and, in 
the nineteenth century, science emancipates 
them from this prison of millenniums. And 
devoutly studying Holy Writ, we see its light 
and feel its heat; we grow warm and luminous. 



208 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

Whence the hght and heat? They are the 
ancient hght and heat of the Sun of righteous- 
ness. ^^My words, they are spirit and they 
are hght." 

''But how shall I study the Bible?" asks 
one. There are so many helpful ways of 
studying it that I am at a loss to attempt, in 
a few words, an answer to your question. But 
you should study it systematically. Some read 
it daily. Perhaps at night they read wherever 
it happens to open. Good comes from such 
a course, but not the greatest good. It would 
be far better to read it hiographically , follow- 
ing the life of Adam, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, 
David, Paul, etc., much as w^e read French 
history in connection with the life of Napo- 
leon. Or read the Gospels, then Acts, etc. 
We should read it temperately, not overload- 
ing the stomach, and destroying the digestive 
organs. Only read as much as you can ap- 
propriate and turn into spiritual blood. See- 
ing great piles of money in the bank does not 
create wealth. It must be ours before we 
are rich. We must read regularly. Feasting 
two or three days, followed by a fast, will 
destroy the health of the body. To cram 
on Sunday, and fast the rest of the week, 



FIRST PUIXCIPLES 209 

means poor health and premature death. 
Study it discriminatingly. An eminent lec- 
turer was dining with a friend, who asked, 
'^Are you a Christian?" ^'Yes/' ''Do you 
believe the Bible?'' ''Yes." "Are there not 
a great many things in it you do not under- 
stand?" "Yes," was again the response. 
"What do you do about them?" "Lay them 
aside as I do this shadbone," said the lec- 
turer; "and enjoy the meat after the bone 
is gone. I can not give up shad for an occa- 
sional bone." A finite being will not be able 
to fully comprehend an infinite revelation. 
The ocean can not be poured into a teacup. 
But the cup can be filled. And if we devote 
ourselves to things that are plain we will be 
too busy to stumble over difficulties, and so 
our capacity will be increased, and we can 
contain more of the vast ocean of divine wealth 
and love. Such a study brings Christ close to 
us, much as a mother draws her absent boy 
near through her letters to him. He hears 
her words of comfort and warning; he feels 
the magic touch of her gentle hand; he looks 
again into her loving eyes; and the power 
of her life is imparted to him, and he becomes 
a better boy. 



2.10 Fih'sr rKiNriiM-KS 

'2. Ih/ rcadiuij ijood hooks, pajHM's aiul maj;"- 
aziiies, aiul by faithful work in tho Suuday- 
seliool, cither as toachor or scholar, ami by 
hearino; gospel preaching. 

3. /)// aiiJ of ihc Lord's Supper. Sitting 
with closed ey(^s, lest other objects distract 
the mind, the soul looks upon {\\c sacrcnl 
emblems, and is filled with ii;ra(itude. and 
the life is consecratcil anew to llini who died 
that we might live. Paul, spc^aking o( some 
who did not appreciate this holy feast, says, 
''For this cause many are weak and sickly 
among you, and many sleep" [\. Cov. xi. 30). 
The converse is true. The proper use o( the 
supper will give strength and health, and 
save from spiritual death. 

ATMOSPHERE. 

A child may be well born, well fed and 
well cared for, but if the air it breathes is 
bad, the health can not be good. This at- 
mosphere represents the associations of life. 
*'If we live with the lame, we learn to halt." 
A\\^ are not only known by the company we 
keep, but we are often made or marred by 
that company. One sick man can infect a 
thousand well ones with disease. And this 



FIRST PinXCIPLES 211 

infection is like the M'mg, of an insignificant 
insect, unnoticed at the time, hut hiter it 
develops a fatal poison. Let a few of these 
malarial districts be named: 

1. Godless clubs. The world is running wild 
with the club idea. And this craze has no 
respect for sex. Formerly, it was confined 
to men, but now it includes women also. Many 
of them are bad. Spcakmg of the bad ones, 
Beecher says: ''They destroy more than moral 
principles — they wreck manhood, health, high 
purpose and self-respect. A young man may 
enter such a club, but no man comes out of it. 
Manhood evaporates under this organized pres- 
sure of vice, and leaves something fitter to 
crawl than to walk." 

2. Ballrooms. Cicero is extreme when he 
says, ''No man in his senses will dance"; 
and Terence blunders when he says, "They 
who love dancing too much, seem to have 
more brains in their feet than in their head." 
I have no unkind feelings for the young who 
are drawn into this fascinating pleasure, and 
no sarcasm to vent at their expense. I was 
once there myself. But I wish to say with all 
the emphasis in my power that the ballroom 
is not conducive of spiritual growth. It will 



212 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

not make you love the Sunday-school, the 
Endeavor work, the prayer-meeting, etc., but 
it will tend mightily to wean you from them, 
and from all things religious. 

3. Gambling dens. Cotton says, ''The gam- 
bler is a moral suicide.'' The tendency to 
gamble is strong in American blood. But the 
life is always bad. It unfits us for every- 
thing good. It robs the laborer of relish for 
his work. It destroys domestic happiness. 
When once thoroughly initiated, all else is 
vapid, if not disgusting. Like the sailor 
on shore, a few days suffice, and he returns 
to the wild life of wind and wave. But the 
saddest and most astounding and most in- 
excusable feature of all is that in modern 
society life the taste for gambling is first creat- 
ed. How mothers and wives and sisters can 
be blind to this sad fact is a marvel to me. 

A broken-hearted man confessed that he 
had gambled away a large sum of his employer's 
money; and when asked where he learned 
to play cards, he answered: ''When a boy I 
learned to play at home." This is truly a 
sad picture: the penitentiary in the foreground, 
a card-playing home in the background, and 
a blasted life between them. 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 213 

A mother returned from the club and showed 
her son a beautiful and costly prize she had 
won; and she was much elated over her triumph. 
''That is nothing, mamma/' he said; ''I won 
ten dollars in a game down town last night." 
Her countenance fell and her heart bled when 
she realized that her boy was a gambler, and 
that she was his teacher. And she is not the 
only mother who has wept over lost boys 
led astray by themselves. 

4. Bad hooks. A man reaching up for a 
book in his library, felt a slight sting, like 
the pricking of a pin. He paid little atten- 
tion to it. But soon his hand began to swell, 
and then his arm and body, and in a short time 
he w^as dead. A poisonous reptile, concealed 
among the books, had stung him to death. 
Many books are full of reptiles more deadly, 
which destroy the souls of men. 

5. The saloon. I need not tell you to avoid 
this awful source of sin. It is, perhaps, of 
all the evils of earth, the worst, and the one 
which breeds and cultures more evil than all 
others combined. 

We should not only shun such associations 
as these, but we must seek the comxpanion- 
ship of the pure and good. ''He that walketh 



214 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

with wise men shall be wise" (Prov. xiii. 20). 
Our bosom friends should be the friends of 
Jesus. When God's people assemble for his 
work and worship, we should be in their midst. 
When their songs of praise, like sweet incense, 
rise up to heaven, we should join in the strain. 
When the sermon exalts the Christ, makes 
plain the Bible, and inspires holy living, let 
us hear it. When the table of the suffering 
Saviour is spread, let not our seats be vacant. 
Thus will we breathe the ozone of a spiritual 
life, and we will grow into the image of our 
Lord and Master. 

EXERCISE. 

But one may have good food and good 
atmosphere, yet, if he does not exercise, he 
will die of the gout. In the Christian life, 
as in nature, it is do or die. The unused arm 
withers; the unused eye loses the power of 
vision; the idle brain loses the power of thought. 
The Jordan waters, as they come down from 
the snow-covered mountains of Lebanon, are 
clear as crystal, beautiful as diamonds, and 
full of life. But when they enter the fatal 
sea and become inactive, they die. 

The Master's life was one of acting. At the 



FIRST PRINCIPLES 215 

early age of twelve, he said, '^I must be about 
my Father's business'' (Luke ii. 49). In 
the midst of liis ministry, he said, ''I must 
work the work of him that sent me while it 
is day: the night cometh, when no man can 
work" (John ix. 4). When Peter would 
sum up in a single short sentence the key to 
His wonderful life, he says, ''He went about 
doing good" (Acts x. 38). There will be but 
two classes at the judgment: those who did 
and those who did not. (Matt. xxv. 31-46.) 

The supreme want of the church is workers: 
active, tireless, consecrated and strong, who 
can be relied upon; men and women not only 
built on the rock, but of the .rock: granitic 
Christians. (I. Pet. ii. 5.) The task com- 
mitted to her hands is nothing less than the 
salvation of a lost world: a gigantic under- 
taking. To bring it thus far has cost the 
blood of an army of martyrs, and the sac- 
rifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we pray 
and labor for power sufficient for this great 
task. 

A little child was asked why she wished 
to be a painter. ''That I may help God paint 
the skies and clouds at sunsets," was the reply 
But God wants no such help. In arching the 



216 FIRST PRINCIPLES 

skies, in piling up the mountains, in "painting 
the rainbow, and in thousands of other works, 
he has no human partner. He asks not our 
help in burnishing the sun, in keeping the 
moon and stars in their orbits, or in beautify- 
ing and sweetening the roses, and in making 
gorgeous the garments of the birds. But in 
the greatest of all work, the saving of souls, 
he honors us by making us his co-workers: 

''Who doeth good by loving deed or word ; 
Who hfteth up a fallen one, or dries a tear; 
Who helps another bear his heavy cross, 
Or on the parched and fevered lips doth pour 
A blessed draught of water, sweet and cool, 
Becomes a co-worker with the Lord of all." 



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